The Italian experience of aggregation in public authority procurement

This paper analyses the Italian experience of aggregation in public authority procurement, taking regulatory developments and their precise effects into account. It highlights the advantages of aggregating public procurement, but also the specific difficulties arising from a conflict of interest with the need for aggregation. Starting from the beginning of the Italian experience at the end the 1990s, the paper analyses the more recent attempts at reorganisation. In particular, it analyses the situation before various laws were passed in connection with the start of the economic crisis (known in Italy as the “spending review laws”), which strongly favoured procurement aggregation because of its related spending savings but without a clear plan for organising public procurement demand. The paper then analyses the most recent changes, mainly the result of the new Public Procurement Code approved in early 2016, and which were aimed at reorganising the aggregation of public procurement through a structural management mechanism.