Italy's Confiscated Assets Database (CAD)

The Tax Policy Department of the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance provides a specific online public service allowing police bodies, other Governmental entities and third sector actors to apply for the custody of goods confiscated in the fight against contraband. The service is accessible through the web page www.finanze.gov.it (Affidamento dei beni sequestrati). Users can visit a database listing all available assets, along with the reference addresses for the request of custody. This service helps reduce the costs for guardianship and share information about the seized assets.

Policy Context

The Tax Policy Department is one of the four divisions constituting the Ministry of Economy and Finance. The Department implements the Minister’s directives, and ensures the general management of the fiscal system and the collection of taxes. Within the Italian Tax Administration, all operational activities required for the administration and enforcement of taxes as well as for the improvement of relations with taxpayers are entrusted to four Tax Agencies: Agenzia delle Entrate (Revenue), Agenzia delle Dogane (Customs), Agenzia del Territorio (Land and Real Estate) and Agenzia del Demanio (State Property). The Tax Administration is working to create a model of eGovernment based on the widespread use of the latest ICT solutions. It aims to respond to users’ needs (individual citizens or businesses) by enabling them to fulfil their tax obligations in an easy and quick manner and, at the same time, by ensuring the efficiency and transparency of government transactions and information. In particular, the CAD helps reduce the costs of guardianship and share information about confiscated assets. This model is, furthermore, consistent with the EU eGovernment policy since it intends to enable public administrations to pursue, through the provision of online services, the objectives of improving their internal functioning, enhancing democracy, and upgrading the quality of services and opportunities to citizens and businesses

Description of target users and groups

The target group is composed by police bodies, Governmental entities and third sector actors. In Italy, over 221,00 third sector organizations (Istat 2001) operate in the areas of social welfare and health care (59,4%), education and training, civil protection, protection and promotion of rights and culture.

Description of the way to implement the initiative

The Ministry of Economy and Finance owns 100% share of SOGEI Spa, the technological agency in charge of supplying the Tax Administration with IT structures, and relevant management and maintenance services. This is why the Tax Policy Department has entrusted this company with the creation of the CAD database. SOGEI has suggested three different solutions, with a document illustrating the pros and cons for each option, and relevant features. The choice has been made taking into account the best solution to guarantee that contacts between the various bodies take place through central offices only. This service attains its goal with minimum management effort and minimum number of errors. The software tool utilized is external to the system and consolidated (e-mail messaging), and an easy one to manage.

Technology solution

A public service organization generates public value when it delivers a set of social and economic outcomes in line with the citizens’ priorities in a cost-effective manner. CAD does so and, in the next few months, we expected its database to grow exponentially. However, an efficient use and leverage of these data may create a variety of challenges. For this reason, the selection of a delivery method for CAD was based on the needs and preferences of the potential targeted audience and the specific institutional purposes, blending on-line and off-line delivery methods. CAD privileges the on-line method to publish and share information concerning the assets, while it chooses the off-line option for the assignment procedure.

Main results, benefits and impacts

CAD consitutes a transferable experience, mainly in the so called "justice sector". This application is built around the three value drivers of efficiency, democracy and effectiveness and it was elaborated to produce a multidimensional assessment of the public value potentially generated by eGovernment, i.e. not limited to the strictly quantitative financial impact but also fully including qualitative data. In particular, the system's architecture - totally web-based with a databank centralised in one database - can be recommended for those public administrations with front offices in different locations. The fight against contraband that the Italian Government leads is quite remarkable if we consider that Italy is a country surrounded by the sea. The social function of this fight is well-known. Now the objective is to make this work not only useful in terms of social security, but also beneficial for citizens to enjoy some economic advantages from it. In Italy, there are precise laws governing the re-use of seized assets. This is a new ethic contribution to society. The authorized entities are eased and supported by the new opportunity of this service. This initiative is really beyond a traditional service because concerns a new vision of the Government’s policy. The safety of citizens is a high expenses in the Financial Budget of State. So this is the reason why we have decided to take some economical advantages from this action, especially aiding those sectors of the society that are directly involved with welfare state and charity as the entities authorized. This public initiative is a concrete answer to this innovative concept involving aspects of civic life. Moreover, it is marked by management efficiency, low costs, simplicity, easy access and transparency for all the users. A strategic factor of this project is also the widespread distribution of the network across Italy: every point of customs is entitled to point out confiscated assets to be inserted into the database. The impact of this service is not a one-off event, but it is sustainable in terms of costs and organizational acitvity (i.e. persons involved, ICT applications, setting-up of a network of local focal points). This service is a kind of “men at the work” application, marked by a growing involvement of local offices of both Customs Agency and State Monopolies.

Return on investment

Return on investment: Not applicable / Not available

Track record of sharing

The effectiveness of this procedure has led to the adoption of a similar mechanism (email process for authorized users) for another process to forward the management reports on local taxes by authorized concessionaires.

Lessons learnt

Lesson 1 - The first lesson is that public administrations can translate the costs referred to the guardianship of confiscated assets into opportunities for other public bodies or third sector actors. Lesson 2 - The second is that the structure of the service is easy enough to be benchmarked by Custom organizations of other EU Member States. Lesson 3 - The third lesson regards the key role of Tax Administration to guarantee rapid and transparent allocation procedures and management of confiscated assets. By implementing this service, we consider the assets seized from a new perspective: they are not only the evidence or result of criminal activities but also resources to be re-used, thus generating added value for the community. Scope: National