ROME-- Italians are being encouraged to report wasteful public spending online as part of a new initiative which aims to save over 2.1bn euros by the end of the year.

 The scheme is intended to facilitate the work of new public savings commissar Enrico Bondi, who has two weeks to present an initial programme of cuts intended to make up 50 per cent of the overall government savings target of 4.2bn euros. Bondi’s main target will be the health service, with bloated public contracts due to come under close scrutiny. Bondi’s priority, according to his brief as special commissioner, is to “set a level of spending for the purchase of goods and services” in the face of widespread corruption and notoriously profligate spending

 Delivering the remaining 50 per cent is the responsibility of Minister for Government Relations Piero Giarda, who has the formidable task of reducing the number of administrative regions from 110 to between 50 and 60, as well as co-ordinating cuts to individual ministries.

 Speaking at a press conference immediately after Bondi’s appointment, the undersecretary to Prime Minister Monti, Antonio Catricalà, praised the new commissioner as “one of only two or three people in Italy who can do this kind of job.

 “What Bondi is going to be doing could not be done by a minister or a secretary,” he explained to journalists. “It is a managerial job.” Bondi was previously lauded for his part in the restructuring of Parmalat, the dairy group whose 2003 collapse was the largest in European history, and it is hoped that he can apply the same expertise to Italy’s tottering public sector.

 Allowing the public a say in the proposed reforms online comes after a similarly successful scheme in February. As part of a drive to simplify Italy’s famously labyrinthine administration, the public was invited to suggest measures to simplify bureaucracy. Fifteen suggestions from members of the public were approved, and the government clearly hopes that this latest online initiative will imitate the success of its predecessor.

 Public approval of austerity measures remains high as investigations expose the extent of corruption and extravagance in the previous administration. Yet ministers continue to struggle to decide exactly where the axe should fall, with Berlusconi’s Popolo della Libertà set against cuts to defence and the centre-left opposition refusing to accept a reduction in the health and education budgets. Decisions will have to be made quickly, however, with unemployment figures approaching 10 per cent. “Growth is the vital objective,” the prime minister emphasised, but warned that it “may take some time.”