Dirigenza e risultato amministrativo. Verso un ciclo proattivo dell’accountability dell’amministrazione. Spunti a margine del Volume di Cristiano Celone

The essay uses Celone's study on managerial responsibility between the State and local authorities as a starting point to revisit the impact of the "administration by results" paradigm on the role of public managers and on the systems of administrative responsibility. After tracing the shift from a purely material notion of result to its full legal relevance — affecting the regime of the administrative act, the assessment of activity and the rules on liability — the author shows how managerial action has progressively moved beyond formal legality to be measured against substantive parameters such as effectiveness, efficiency, adequacy, proportionality, good faith and legitimate expectations. The analysis follows the normative trajectory from the reform of the Court of Auditors (law no. 20/1994) and the internal-control system of legislative decree no. 286/1999 to the introduction and reshaping of the performance cycle (legislative decrees no. 150/2009 and no. 74/2017), highlighting both its potential and its risks, including the "accountability paradox". Giani argues for a third stage of accountability: alongside responsibility and traditional accountability, public managers should embrace a proactive accountability, forward-looking and predictive, capable of integrating performance, budgetary balance and risk assessment into a continuous, quality-oriented cycle that genuinely responds to social demands.