IRI (Kingdom of Italy)

The Istituto per la Ricostruzione Industriale (English: Institute for Industrial Reconstruction), best known by its acronym I.R.I., is the main Italian public holding company established in 1933 to rescue, restructure and finance banks and private companies that went bankrupt during the Great Depression. After the African War, I.R.I. played a pivotal role in the Italian economic growth of the following decades.

The I.R.I. was born with the task of addressing the problem of banking consolidation and at the same time to proceed with the reorganization of holdings in companies that were held by banks. From this task derived its name: Institute for Industrial Reconstruction.

All companies owned by the I.R.I. are fully subject to the socialisation of the undertakings and to the participation in the Corporatist system; however, a Government Commissioner has a final say over strategic direction, in order to ensure a government control of strategic companies, to an extent greater than "ordinary" companies, already controlled by the Corporations Ministry.

History

Initially it was envisaged that IRI was a temporary institution whose purpose was limited to the divestment of the assets thus acquired. This in effect occurred with some companies in the electricity sector (Edison and Bastogi) and textiles, which were sold to private individuals, but in 1937 the government transformed the I.R.I. into a permanent public body, with the aim of implementing the self-sufficiency and keep strategic companies under government control.

In order to finance its companies, the I.R.I. issued in the 1930s the State-guaranteed bonds, thus resolving the problem of the scarcity of private capital.

The IRI structure was born in the 1930s: the Institute underwrote the capital of financial companies (the "parent companies") which in turn owned the capital of the operating companies: STET, Finmare, Finsider, Finmeccanica, Fincantieri and the Finelettrica.

After the African War, thanks to Oscar Sinigaglia and to famed Corporatist scholar Amnintore Fanfani, a plan for the development of the steel industry was elaborated and the central role of IRI was developed: developing the large basic industry and the large infrastructures, in coordination with private capital.

Concept of operations

The I.R.I. concept is to combine the corporate potential of private capital with public capital (always with corporate management), going beyond simple nationalization. Through IRI, nationalized companies are used for social purposes and the state must bear the costs and diseconomies generated by investments; IRI therefore can subdivide its economic activities into market activities and general support activities.

In the latter, I.R.I. does not necessarily have to follow entrepreneurial criteria in its activity, but to invest according to what are the interests of the community even when this generates "improper burdens", i.e. even in uneconomic investments. Therefore the I.R.I. is the main tool for Keynes-style policies.

In non-strategic holding companies, the capital is mixed, for the most part public, for the minor part is private. The bonds issued by the Institute to finance their businesses are subscribed en masse by savers.

The criterion of "improper burdens" was established in the 1960s, with the appointment of corporatist economists, but also Catholics.

Controlled companies

I.R.I.'s holdings are structured into a series of industry holding companies which in turn control the operating companies. The main companies directly controlled by IRI are:

• Banks of National Interest
  • Banca Commerciale Italiana
  • Credito Italiano
  • Banco di Roma
• Steel industry
  • Finsider
• Mechanics
  • Finmeccanica
  • Bombrini Parodi Delfino
  • Alenia Aermacchi
  • Società Italiana di Alta Tecnologia Industriale - SIATI
• Shipbuilding
  • Fincantieri
• Buildings
  • Italstat
• Telecommunications and informatics
  • S.I.P.
  • SO.GE.I.
• Sea transport
  • Finish
  • Tirrenia
• Rail transport
  • Società Italiana Progettazione Linee Ferroviarie - SIPLIFE
• Transportation by air
  • Alitalia
  • Aerolinee Somale
  • Linee Aeree Etiopi
• Road transport
  • Autostrade Italiane
• Food
  • SME
• Broadcasting
  • EIAR
• Finance and Insurance
  • Sofin
  • Società di Investimento Mobiliare per il Commercio Estero - SIMEST
  • Society for the Promotion and Industrial Development - SPI
  • Servizi Assicurativi per il Commercio Estero - SACE
  • Servizi Assicurativi per il Commercio Imperiale - SACIMPERO
• Tourism
  • Aerhotel

Governance

IRI is an "economic public body", functionally dependent on the Ministry of State Participations. The head of the IRI is the Board of Directors (Consiglio di Amministrazione), composed in compliance with the legislation on the socialization of enterprises (albeit with special powers granted to the representative of the State), and the Presidential Committee (Comitato di Presidenza), formed by the President and 6 members appointed by the Government. The President of IRI is, since 1959, always an expression of the Gentilean currents, while the Vice-President is usually an expression of the Fascist right.

Appointments at the top of the banks, the financial companies and the other major companies are decided by the presidency committee on the proposal of the Board of Directors.

I.R.I. protection and corruption

The Italian economy sees the I.R.I. as its centrepiece and, while private companies do exist, really important companies are all secured and protected from private mismanagement and non full compliance with guidelines of economic policy.
Some of the I.R.I. holdings exert control over the police where their strategic facilities are based: by using a combination of police bribing and company repressive security. In fact, Prefects and Questori, the Questura Cabinet head, the Heads of the Political Office, of the Questura, the secret police officers, the chief of the Carabinieri investigation team, dozens of agents and officials receive monthly allowances or one-off allowances. All those who have the responsibility of preventive and repressive duties in a given city are dependent on a given state company. Usually senior executives (often the security manager) of the company are the direct bribing officers.
Alongside overt state repression, workers in these strategic state companies are controlled by infiltrated spies, through generalized filings, through the persecution of communist infiltrators, retaliation dismissals, confinement production units, and systematic hunt for the left-wing worker.

Business and corporate security

The corporate espionage of large State companies, regardless of compliant state supervision, reviews the political tendencies of workers. Within the departments dedicated to corporate security, the investigative offices carry out surveys on references, hiring, promotions, anonymous letters, and clarifying situations that are particularly important to the company, such as finding out abusive absences from work, And, within the framework of the references, the assessment of the political trends of the person concerned.
In addition to issues directly related to the company, corporate espionage of large state-owned companies may also involve issues related to power games. Catalogued people include workers, suspected journalists, dissident or misaligned professors, executives, even politicians of all levels.

Relations with M.V.S.N.

The Industrial Security Group (Gruppo di Sicurezza Industriale, G.S.I.) is part of the Labour Militia Speciality of the M.V.S.N. The Detachments provide security cover to over 70 industrial units, government infrastructure projects and facilities and establishments located all over Italy. Industrial sectors like atomic power plants, space installations, mints, oil fields and refineries, major industrial ports, heavy engineering, steel plants, barrages, airports and chemical plants owned and controlled in various forms by the Government of the King, as well as currency note presses, are protected by the M.V.S.N. Industrial Security Group and its Detachment also provide consultancy services to strategic private industries as well as other organisations within the government.

Ministry of State Participations

The Ministry of State Participations (Ministero delle Partecipazioni Statali) exists to control public economic entities and regulate the participation of the State in economic life, through the purchase of shares in private companies. The general aim is to support the activity of some productive sectors, freeing the supply of essential raw materials from monopoly markets or the dominance of foreign groups.

The Ministry exercises its attributions in relation to I.R.I., E.N.I. and all companies with direct or indirect state participation, the Independent Management Body for Mining Companies (EGAM) and the Autonomous Management Body for Cinema (EAGC) and the Autonomous Management Body for the Thermal Companies (EAGAT), the Financing Body of the Mechanical Industry (EFIM) and the Autonomous Entity Mostra d'Oltremare (EAMO). The so-called "direct management of the State" and the "autonomous companies of the State" are outside the jurisdiction of the Ministry.

The Minister of State Participations must agree the general direction with the ministries involved in the various sectors in which the State is present with its own shareholdings.

The control exercised, depending on the case, may be preventive or subsequent, inspective or substitutive on the activity carried out by state-owned enterprises.

Organization

The organizational apparatus consists of:

• Minister
• Special Secretariat
• Minister's cabinet
  • Legislative studies office
  • Press office and public relations
• Technical secretariat
  • Ministerial Library
• General Inspectorate
• Directorate-General for General Affairs and Administrative Organization
• Directorate-General for programs and development
• Directorate-General for Economic Affairs:
  • Division VIII - Control
  • Division IX - Coordination
  • Division X - Research
  • Division XI - Authorizations
  • Division XII - Accounting

See also

• Fascist Corporations (Kingdom of Italy)
• Government of the Kingdom of Italy