To offer an opportunity for scientific and institutional discussion on the reform of fiscal liability introduced by Law No. 1 of January 7, 2026, which intervenes in an area at the intersection of protecting public finances, efficiency of administrative action, and the responsibility of public officials and bodies.
This was the goal of the conference "Deciding in Public Administration: the reform of the Court of Auditors between guarantee, control and responsibility", organized by TSM – Trentino School of Management together with the Department of Organization, Personnel and Innovation of the Autonomous Province of Trento. At the center of the discussion was the systematic meaning of the reform and its practical consequences, with particular attention to the effects on administrative action.
The conference, moderated by Gianfranco Postal, former general manager of the Province, was divided into thematic sessions, aimed at providing a comprehensive overview of the innovations introduced and their applications, and concluded with a round table intended to bring institutional and practical perspectives into dialogue.
“Public administration today,” said the Vice President of the Province, Achille Spinelli, opening the proceedings, “is no longer just a management apparatus: it is an infrastructure for development, a lever for social cohesion, a territorial presence, an entity called upon to accompany very complex transitions. Within this scenario, the issue of responsibility inevitably takes on strategic importance.
Because a modern democracy certainly needs strong, independent, and authoritative controls, but at the same time, there is a need for administrations that are enabled to decide. So here is the key point: finding a mature balance,” Spinelli specified, “between guarantee and capacity for action. A balance that cannot be built by pitting control against administration, as if they were separate worlds or opposing interests. On the contrary, control and administration,” concluded the Vice President of the Province, “are complementary elements of the same institutional system oriented toward the protection of the public interest.”
“This event, for TSM and for the Trentino institutional system, is no longer just a training moment, but is taking on,” said the president of TSM, Francesco Barone, “the features of a true privileged observatory: a stable place for discussion to reflect on the evolution of relations between autonomous entities, public administrations, and the Court of Auditors; a perspective that allows us to understand regulatory and institutional transformations not episodically, but in a broader trajectory, capable of building an administrative culture able to read complexity and decide accordingly.
The hope is that from this day,” Barone concluded, “not only qualified legal analyses may emerge, but also suitable hermeneutic tools and indications useful for strengthening a culture of public decision-making: a culture that, in the dialectic between prudence and inertia, between oversight and obstacle, between responsibility and fear, always knows how to make the former prevail over the latter.”
Speakers in the various sections of the conference included: Luisa D’Evoli, President of the Regional Control Section of the Court of Auditors for Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol; Guido Rivosecchi, Full Professor of Constitutional and Public Law – University of Padua; Flavio Guella, Associate Professor of Constitutional and Public Law – University of Trento; Marilisa Beltrame, Counselor at the Regional Control Section of the Court of Auditors for Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol; Elisa D’Alterio, Full Professor of Administrative Law – University of Catania; Donato Centrone, President of the Association of Magistrates of the Court of Auditors; Giampiero Pizziconi, Counselor at the Central Section for Control over Management of State Administrations of the Court of Auditors; and Elena Mattevi, Professor of Criminal Law – University of Trento.
The proceedings concluded with a round table, moderated by Gianni Trovati, with the participation of: Grazia Bacchi, President of the Jurisdictional Section of the Court of Auditors for Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol; Antonio Angelini, President of the Bar Association of Trento; Luciana Pedergnana, Mayor of the Municipality of Terzolas; Valerio Bazzanella, General Secretary of the Municipality of Rovereto; Giovanni Gardelli, General Manager of the Department of Urban Planning, Energy, Land Registry, Cadastre, and Territorial Cohesion of the Autonomous Province of Trento; and Evelina Stefani, General Manager of the Legal Affairs Office of the Autonomous Province of Trento.
