The State's Central Administration The State, as the fundamental public entity, undertakes through its executive organs two types of activity. It directs general policy and administration, activities that very often overlap and are certainly not clearly distinguishable. After the establishment of the Regions the powers of the central administration were markedly qualified and reduced because significant areas of activity were entrusted to the Regions and the local entities. Put very simply, it can be said that today the State's political and administrative intervention relates to four large sectors. The first concerns general policies, including economic planning, budgetary controls, trade union negotiations for public sector employees, international relations and the direction and co-ordination of the Regions in specified matters. The second sector relates to financial policy and covers public finance, taxation, the treasury and money supply. The third sector is that of the political economy. To which belong industry and commerce, the mercantile marine, international trade, national transport, energy production, employment and social security and, finally, state participation in superintending the direction and investment of national funds in industrial, agricultural and commercial enterprises. The fourth sector concerns the policies inherent in the nationally essential services of justice, education, scientific research, defence, public order, post and telecommunications, civilian protection etc. This combination of public activities is entrusted to the organs of the government of the Republic that, in the strictly administrative field, are divided into elective and central bureaucratic organs. The first category belongs to the presidente del consiglio (president of the council) of ministers, the council of ministers, individual ministers and under-secretaries of state, as well as inter-ministerial committees. The second category of organs comes under the direction of the central administration. It can be said very roughly that the area of competence of the individual organs is regulated by law, so that strict rules on the distribution of administrative roles do not exist. Several very general constants can however be identified, one of which is applied by the Constitution to the presidente del consiglio dei ministri (president of the council of ministers). - Presidente del Consiglio dei Ministri: has a pre-eminent position in the government, watches over the conformity of action of the governmental organs to the pre-chosen political line, maintains unity of direction, stimulates and co-ordinates government activity; he presides over the cabinet and most of the inter-ministerial committees; and superintends personally, through an under-secretary to the presidente del Consiglio, some particular sectors of state administration. - Consiglio dei Ministri: takes care of administrative issues of major political importance and tends to decide on the general direction of the administration. - Comitati Interministeriali: these are composed of groups of ministers having similar or complementary responsibilities, whose aim is to co-ordinate actions or determine policies involving more than one ministery; the most important of these committees is the CIPE, for economic planning. - Ministri: each minister supervises an area of administration and a network of offices, being the centre for referral and decision of State interests. Currently the law allows for 19 ministeries, to which can ben added ministers without portfolio; the latter do not have an official organization and staff, but only a secretary, and do not possess an individual title of authority. - Sottosegretari di Stato: the under-secretaries assist the minister in the running of his ministery, without being members of the consiglio dei ministri and having personal authority (there are however exceptions), but only duties delegated by the minister or his representatives. - Dirigenti: these are functionaries of the State hierarchy to whom the law attributes particular external duties, either of type or value, and to whom the minister can delegate negotiation and decision of problems or the signature of acts; the acts of the dirigenti can be annulled by the minister, on the grounds of legitimacy, within forty days of issue. The organs of government discharge their duties through administrative acts, consisting of decrees, resolutions of the collective bodies or decisions requiring the issue of a decree by the President of the Republic. Such acts are subject to control by the Corte dei Conti for legitimacy and conformity to budgetary law before registration; when the court refuses to authorize registration the question is decided by the Consiglio dei ministri who can authorize it with reservation. Once the acts have been positively vetted they receive executive power. The central administration of the State does not end in the person of the State as in many areas there have been created independent State administrations, dealing with public services of a particularly technical nature or economic activities (eg. ANAS, National Road Board; AAMS, State Monopolies Board; A.P.T.C., Post and Telecommunications Administration etc.). These agencies, while having financial and directional independence, are subject to the power of the minister over the ministery to which they belong. Equally the State has created a series of public entities that, with increased agility and specialization, care for particular sectors of State administration. Into this category of instrumental entities, tied to the government by direct controls, fall all the entities administering social security, the Bank of Italy, National Research Council, Central Institute of Statistics, etc. Also in this group are the entities for the public economy that however function in the private sector: National Electrical Energy Corporation (ENEL), National Hydrocarbon Corporation (ENI), Institute for the Reconstruction of Industry (IRI) etc.