The Italian cabinet approved a draft bill on Friday aimed at cutting the country's high political cost amid waves of public criticism in recent months.
The government said the bill would save at least 1.3 billion euros with a clampdown on perks such as chauffeured cars and mobile phones.
A key money-saving measure would be a 20-percent reduction in the number of local and regional government councilors. The bill also foresees a streamlined cabinet consisting of just 12 ministers.
At the moment, there are no such limits and the current government, headed by center-left Premier Romano Prodi, is of a record size with 25 ministers plus 10 junior ministers and 66 undersecretaries, according to local media reports.
But the reform would not affect the Prodi government as it would only apply from the next legislature.
The bill also tightens the screw on bureaucrats holding multiple posts and the proliferation of public entities, while the number of managers working for state-owned companies would be cut and their salaries reduced.
Other measures include greater transparency in the way public officials and consultants are appointed and paid and a crackdown on the growing number of low-lying communities which manage to obtain extra state subsidies by claiming to be mountain villages.
Italian Regional Affairs Minister Linda Lanzillotta hailed the bill as a "collective act of responsibility at all institutional levels which will enable us to reduce and rationalize the cost of elected assemblies, government organs and support structures".
But the center-right opposition, led by former premier Silvio Berlusconi, blasted the planned reforms as "ridiculous."
"After lots of hype, the government has finally unveiled its cost-cutting bill," Berlusconi's Forza Italia party said.
"But instead of starting with an immediate reduction in the number of ministers and undersecretaries in the largest government in Europe and the history of the Italian Republic, it instead announces a cut in mobile phones and chauffeured cars."
Other critics said the bill failed to tackle the high cost of the central government, noting that Italian lawmakers far outnumber their European counterparts and are among the best paid in the EU.
Source: Xinhua
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