Art. 31. Role and functions of the official responsible of the procedure in contracts and concessions

1. For any individual procedure for the award of a contract or concession contracting authorities or entities shall identify when adopting or updating the programs in Article 21, paragraph 1, or at the moment of initiation relating to each individual intervention, for the exigencies not included in the planning, an official responsible of the procedure for the planning, design, award and execution phases. Contracting authorities or entities shall make recourse to purchasing and negotiating systems of the central purchasing bodies shall appoint, for each of the abovementioned purchases, an official responsible of the procedure which specifically assumes, in relation to the individual purchase, the role and functions provided for in this Article. Without prejudice to what provided for in paragraph 10, the official responsible for the procedure shall be appointed with a formal act by the responsible subject of the organizational unit, which shall be of an apical level, among the established officials in charge of that same unity, endowed with the necessary level of juridical classification in relation to the structure of the public administration and of professional competences adequate with reference to the tasks to be carried out upon appointment; the substitution of the official responsible of the procedure identified in planning as of Article 21, paragraph 1, shall not involve any modification thereof. Where a shortage in the workforce of the abovementioned organizational unit has been ascertained, the official responsible of the procedure shall be appointed among the other employees in service. The office of official responsible of the procedure shall have a mandatory nature and cannot be rejected.

2. The name of the official responsible of the procedure shall be indicated in the call or notice through which the competition has been issued for the award of a works, services, supplies contracts or, in the procedures where competition is not called by means of a call or notice, in the invitation to submit a tender.

3. The official responsible of the procedure, pursuant to law n. 241 of 7 August 1990, shall perform all the tasks relating to the planning, design, award and execution procedures covered by this Code, which are not specifically assigned to other bodies or subjects.

4. Besides those tasks specifically provided for in other provisions of this Code, in particular, the official responsible of the procedure:

a) shall formulate proposals and submit data and information in order to prepare the triennial program of public works and the relevant annual updates, as well as for the preparation of any other act of planning of public contracts of services and supplies and of the preparation of the prior information notice;

b) shall control, in each phase of implementation of the investments, the levels of performance, quality and price determined in accordance with the financial budget and with the timeline for realization of the programs;

c) shall take care of the correct and rational performance of the procedures;

d) shall notify possible malfunctions, obstacles, delays in the performance of the interventions;

e) shall ascertain the free disposal of necessary areas and immovable properties;

f) shall submit to the contracting authority the data and information relating to the main phases of the performance of the intervention, necessary for the activity of coordination, address and control of competence and supervise the efficient economic management of the intervention;

g) shall propose to the contracting authority the conclusion of a framework agreement, within the meaning of the norms currently in force, when an integrated and coordinated action of several administrations becomes necessary;

h) shall propose the call or, where competent, call the conference of services pursuant to law n. 241 of 7 August 1990, where it is necessary or useful for the acquisition of agreements, opinions, concessions, authorizations, permits, licenses, permissions, assents, however described;

i) shall verify and supervise the respect of the contractual provisions in concessions. however called;

5. ANAC, by means of guidelines, to be adopted within 90 days from the entry into force of this Code, shall regulate in greater detail the specific tasks of the official responsible for the procedure, the preconditions and modalities of appointment, as well as further professional requirements with respect to what provided for in this Code, in relation to the complexity of the works. With the same guidelines shall be determined also the maximum amount and typology of works, services and supplies for which the official responsible of the procedure may coincide with the designer, the director of works or director of execution. Until the adoption of that act, Article 216, paragraph 8 shall apply.

6. For works and services of architecture and engineering the official responsible of the procedure shall be a technical figure; where such a professional figure is not present, the competences shall be attributed to the responsible of the service to which the work to be realized pertains.

7. In case of particularly complex contracts in relation to the work to be realized or to the specificity of the supply or service, which necessarily require highly specialized evaluations and competences, the official responsible of the procedure shall propose to the contracting authority or entity to confer specific tasks supporting the whole procedure or parts thereof, to be identified since the first steps of the competition.

8. Tasks of planning, security coordination during planning, direction of works, direction of execution, security coordination during execution, testing, as well as tasks that the contracting authority or entity deems necessary in order to support the activity of the official responsible of the procedure, shall be conferred according to the procedures in this Code and, in case of lower amount than the threshold of € 40,000, directly awarded pursuant to Article 36, paragraph 2, letter a). The contractor shall not rely on subcontract, except for geologic, geotechnical and seismic enquiries, surveys, detections, measurements and staking, preparation of specialized and detailed documents, as well as for the graphic redaction of design documents. This is, however, without prejudice to the exclusive responsibility of the designer.

9. The contracting authority or entity, in order to improve the quality of the design and overall planning, may, within its organizational autonomy and in accordance with the limits provided in the existing legislation, establish a stable structure supporting the official responsible of the procedure, also under the direct authority of the competent public administration. For that same purpose, within the activity of mandatory training, shall organize specific training for all those employees having the adequate requirements for being appointed as an official responsible of the procedure, also on specific electronic methods and tools such as modelling for building and infrastructure.

10. Contracting authority or entity which are not public administrations or public entities shall identify, according to their regulations, one or more subjects to which they may award the tasks of the official responsible of the procedure, within the limits of the respect of the norms in this decree that they shall observe.

11. In case of ascertained shortcomings in the staff of the contracting authority or entity or where there is no subject possessing the necessary professional capacity for the performance of the tasks of the official responsible of the procedure, according to what attested by the competent manager, supporting tasks to the activity of the official responsible of the procedure may be awarded, in accordance with the procedures set out in this Code, to subjects having the specific technical, economic, financial, administrative, organizational and legal competences, endowed with a suitable insurance policy covering professional risks pursuant to Article 24, paragraph 4, however ensuring the respect of the principles of publicity and transparency. This is without prejudice to the prohibition of artful splitting of performances in order to exclude them from the field of application of this Code. To the contractors of supporting services pursuant to this Code, provisions on incompatibility as referred to Article 24, paragraph 7 shall apply, including possible design tasks.

12. The subject responsible for the competent organizational unit in relation to the intervention, shall previously identify the organizational and operational modalities through which the effective control by the contracting authority or entity on the execution of the performances shall be ensured, envisaging direct accesses for the official responsible of the procedure or the director of works or director of execution on the site of execution, as well as verifications, also unannounced, on the effective respect of all the mitigating and compensating measures, to the provisions in the field of environmental, landscape, historical, architectonical, archaeological and human health safeguard imposed by the competent entities and bodies. The planning document, accompanied by subsequent report on what actually performed, shall constitute a strategic objective in the framework of the plan of organizational performance of the concerned subjects and by consequence it shall be taken into account when evaluating the indemnity of result. The evaluation of such a control activity by the competent evaluation bodies shall also impact on the payment of the incentives referred to in Article 113.

13. In public work contracts awarded with the form of general contractor and in other forms of public-private partnership, it shall be forbidden the attribution of the tasks of official responsible of the procedure, responsible of the works, director of works, tester to that same general contractor or awardees of public-private partnerships or subjects connected to them.

14. Public purchasing bodies and aggregating subjects of contracting authorities or entities shall appoint an official responsible of the procedure for the activities falling within their competences, with tasks and functions determined with reference to the specificity and complexity of the directly managed. processes of acquisition.

see Guidelines ANAC no. 3: Resolution ANAC no. 1007 of October 11, 2017, published in the Official Gazette, General Series no. 260 of November 7, 2017 concerning: Designation, role and tasks of the person responsible for the procedure regarding the award of public procurements and concessions.