ABSTRACT
The chapter analyses the constitutional value and legislative translation of transparency and accountability of public administration in Italy focusing on public contracts. The study examines relevant legislative innovations introduced by the last reform in the specific sector of public procurement, involving below–threshold contracts for services and supplies (and works of the same value), to verify how transparency and accountability of public administration are achieved when the level of public spending is low. After a preliminary survey on the interpretation that transparency and accountability have acquired within the domestic legislation and scholarship, the present study will examine the evolutionary trend that the principles of transparency and accountability have had in the last decade within the Italian legal system, focusing in particular on the case of contracts below the European threshold. The author attempts to demonstrate, with an analysis carried out with an inductive method, that transparency and accountability are not only strictly functional to guarantee the impartiality of the public procedure but have also developed a more marked identity and–in a completely innovative way compared to the original configuration–have become autonomous principles that are characterized by multiple functions. The chapter ends with some constitutional considerations about the evolution of the principles of transparency and accountability in the Italian perspective.
