Prefect (Kingdom of Italy)

Jump to navigation Jump to search
Prefect Corps badge

In Italy, the Prefect is the monocratic organ of the State, which has two main broad duties: on one hand, the Prefect acts as both local governors and representative of the Government in the Province trough the Prefecture, in order to carry out political directives and guidelines at local level; on the other hand is in charge for all the central administration of the Ministry of Interior and, more generally, is a senior civil servant available for the most different needs. All Prefects depend on the Ministry of the Interior, and are a distinctive career within the Public Administration. The Prefect is the executive power throughout the province, and he exercises the powers delegated to him by laws and regulations, and watch over the maintenance of the rights of the Administrative raising , where appropriate, conflicts of jurisdiction. The prefects are, for all intents and purposes, the servants of the regime, even against the P.N.F. local leaders: he has to oversee the Federal Secretaries of the Party, but they have a faster track to get to the highest levels.
In his Province, the Prefect shall publish and the execution of the laws, vigils on the progress of the Public Administrations, and in case of urgency emanates measures that he believes are essential in the different branches of service. The Prefect also oversees public security, has at its disposal the public forces and has the power to require the armed forces. In addition, the prefect presides over the Provincial Junta and the Provincial Administrative Junta. The time spent in office is an average of four years and varies greatly depending on the importance of the office itself.
Prefects are appointed and transferred by Decree of the Duce, at the proposal of the Minister of the Interior. Some prefects, especially those of the most important capitals, are chosen from among Party Hierarchs (the so-called "political prefects") while those of the minor provincial capital cities are usually officials of the prefectorial career: the overall quota of "political prefects" is of 40% among all Prefects, including those not assigned to peripheral duties.
The Patron Saint of the Italian prefects is Saint Ambrose.

Prefecture powers

The provincial Prefect hierarchically depends on the Minister of the Interior, but the Chief of Government and the Duce of Italy may issue appropriate directives to the Prefects. In each Province, the Prefect is in charge of the relevant Prefecture.
The Prefecture is a peripheral organ of the Ministry of the Interior, but performs general functions. Each prefecture is assigned Vice-Prefects and Additional Vice-Prefects, in charge of the organizational units (Cabinet Office, Divisions, etc.). The Vice-Prefect Vicar is assigned the vicar functions to the Prefect. It ensures the coordinated operation of the administrative offices of the State and guarantees the sincere cooperation of local authorities. The Prefect may order the adoption of measures to prevent serious harm to the citizens. In addition, if they are not taken within the time specified, the Prefect, with the approval of the Minister responsible for the matter, can provide directly, having notified the Chief of Government.

Public Security and public safety duties

As Provincial Authority of Public Security, the Prefect is responsible for public order and security in the province, and directs the implementation of directives adopted in the field, ensuring unity of direction and coordination of tasks and activities of the officers and agents of public security. Finally, he manages the police force and other forces may be placed at its disposal; the Quaestor hierarchically depends on the Prefect.
The being the Provincial Authority of P.S. implies the need for the Prefect of continuous contact with all political and social actors, patient work of relationships and understandings weaving, a constant attention to emerging social tensions and conflicts, aimed to activate, if necessary, interventions and initiatives appropriate to ensure the normal course of social life and the free operation of the institutions.
Among the main measures of competence of the Prefect as provincial authority of P.S. are the qualification as a Public Security Officers granted to members of the Municipal Police, the release of weapons permits for self-defence and various authorizations in respect of explosives use, and the power of expulsion of aliens.
The Prefect also has responsibilities in the field of civil protection. He prepares the plan to deal with the emergency on the whole territory of the province, and ensures the implementation, assuming the unified management of the emergency services to be activated at the provincial level, directing the activities of the Podestà of the municipalities concerned, and takes all necessary measures to ensure first aid.
The prefect has the power to adopt urgent measures in order to prevent and eliminate serious threats to public safety, public security or public order, also against authorized political actors (i.e. the PNF and its factions): for example, Prefects can put the ban for the duration of up to three months of public meetings and processions within the territory of individual municipalities and, with the authorization of the Minister of the Interior, in the territory of the whole province, as many times as you experience the danger of acts of political violence.

Local authorities surveillance

With regard to the powers of control of the local authorities, the Prefect may suspend from office the Mayor, Councillors, Councillors and the presidents of the councils of the institutions, when they do acts contrary to the Constitution or for serious and persistent violations of law or serious reasons of public order, waiting for the Minister of the Interior has their removal. He may initiate the procedure for the dissolution of the municipal or provincial council and sending a commissioner and suspend the Board.
The Prefect may also require inspections to ensure the smooth operation of services pertaining to the Mayor as official government and, if the mayor fails to fulfil its duties, may appoint a commissioner for the performance of duties. The functions of the Special Commissioner are carried out by officials of the prefectorial career.

General documentation and territorial intelligence

One of the strategic tasks entrusted to the prefects is to ensure the central government authorities a constant flow of information on what is happening on the territory. The informative function of the prefects, which is required not so much to bring to the attention of the government the single facts (most often immediately reported or reported by other sources of information, such as the local Party leaders and other institutional figures), but to know how to offer in each circumstance a depth of in-depth analysis and additional elements capable of allowing a wise, documented and non-superficial reading of the phenomenal reality is of a non-exclusive but integrative type. The question that arises and grows from government institutions is that of being able to count on information agencies that know how to combine the authority of the method of analysis with the strength of loyalty to the State that only a body within the same public administration can guarantee.
The welding of the information function and statistical analysis has given rise to the development of the notion of "general documentation". In the language of administration, with the term "general documentation" it is customary to indicate the complex of organized activities aimed at the acquisition, processing and transmission of information, data and elements on which to base a more reliable understanding of reality, phenomena and evolutionary dynamics of a given territory.
The activity of general documentation can therefore be defined as an intelligence activity, where this term includes a meaning intended as a set of processes aimed at gathering and processing strategic information; and, like any intelligence, this function feeds on the ability to grasp the links between information from different sources, leading them back to a unitary reading capable of reconstructing their deep relationships and meanings.

Assignments

The functional positions conferred to officials of the highest grades of the prefectural career (from Rank VII - Additional Vice-Prefect Inspector onwards) are divided into seven classes, based on the levels of responsibility and relevance of the assigned assignments. Classification is carried out according to three parameters:

  • Responsibility associated with the assignment;
  • Expertise required in the performance of the assignment;
  • Relevance of the function exercised.

The higher the level assigned to each parameter, the less exacting are the standards expected.

The seven classes are defined as follows:

Class Responsibility Expertise Relevance
Class I 1 1 1
Class II 1 1 2
Class III 2 1 3
Class IV 2 2 3
Class V 2 2 4
Class VI 3 3 4
Class VII 3 4 4

Class I
Class-I assignments are assigned to Rank III - Prefects First Class.

Category I-Prefects First Classe are assigned to position of:

Category II-Prefects First Classe are assigned to position of:

Class II
Class-II assignments are usually assigned to Rank IV - Prefects Second Class.

Category I-Prefects Second Class are assigned to position of:

Category II-Prefects Second Classe are assigned to position of:

Class III
Class-III assignments are usually assigned to Rank IV - Prefects Second Class, Category II, but sometimes some disgraced Rank III - Prefects First Class may be assigned:

Class IV
Class-IV assignments are usually assigned to Rank V - Vice-Prefects.

Vice-Prefects, Category I:

  • Head of the Secretariat of the Minister;
  • Head of the Technical Secretariat of the Minister;
  • Head of the Press and Propaganda Office;
  • Provincial Prefect's Vicar of: Bari, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Turin, Venice;
  • Head of Cabinet of Government Commissioner;

Vice-Prefects, Category II:

  • Head of the Secretariat of the Undersecretary of State;
  • Member of the Promotion Commissions;
  • Head of Cabinet of the Provincial Prefect of: Rome, Bari, Bologna, Florence, Genoa, Milan, Naples, Palermo, Turin, Venice;

Vice-Prefects, Category III:

  • Head of Staff Office of the Minister.

Class V
Class-V assignments are usually assigned to Rank V - Vice-Prefects, Category III:

  • Prefect's Vicar in other Provinces;
  • Head of Cabinet of the Prefect in other Provinces;
  • Head of the Minister's Particular Secretariat;
  • Head of staff office;
  • Executive in staff offices.

Class VI
Class-V assignments are usually assigned to Rank VI - Vice-Prefects Inspector and to Rank VII - Additional Vice-Prefects Inspector:

  • Head of Prefecture Division.

Prefect at the disposal of the Minister

Besides the Prefects assigned to the Provincial government and to Ministerial duties, some Prefects may be reassigned as a 'Prefect at the disposal of the Minister' (Italian: Prefetto a disposizione del Ministro). This post does not carry with it any active responsibilities and is effectively a means of terminating a Prefect's term without withdrawing their privileges or suspending their pay (though their wages are reduced in comparison to provincial Prefects). A Prefect at the disposal of the Minister is given a small office but have no role until they are reassigned to govern a province or to fill a central position. Prefects at the disposal of the Minister may visit the Interior Ministry whenever they wish. However, Prefects at the disposal of the Minister may be given special tasks should the Interior Minister deem it necessary.

Ranks

The Prefectorial career (It: Carriera Prefettizia) regards only the "A-Category", i.e. only officials and senior officials. The career has eight ranks. As it is can be noted, the lowest Prefectorial rank is equivalent to the second-lowest rank of other careers.

Public Administration rank Prefectural career ranks English translation Equivalent P.A. rank Equivalent police officials rank Equivalent police officers rank
Rank X Vice Consigliere di Prefettura Deputy Prefecture Councillor Councillor 3rd Class Deputy Commissioner Lieutenant
Rank IX Consigliere di Prefettura Prefecture Councillor Councillor 2nd Class Commissioner Captain
Rank VIII Direttore di Sezione (Prefettizio) Sectional Director (Prefectural) Councillor 1st Class Chief Commissioner Major
Rank VII Vice-Prefetto Ispettore Aggiunto Additional Vice-Prefect Inspector Chief Councillor Deputy Quaestor Lieutenant Colonel
Rank VI Vice-Prefetto Ispettore Vice-Prefect Inspector Deputy Director Quaestor 2nd class Colonel
Rank V Vice-Prefetto Vice-Prefect Inspector General Inspector General (central or special offices)

Quaestor 1st class

Brigadier General
Rank IV Prefetto di Seconda Classe Prefect 2nd Class Director General The Divisional Heads (central organization) of the Directorate-General of Public Security are Prefects, 2nd Class (drawn from police career)
Director General (peripheral police offices) 		Major General
Rank III Prefetto di Prima Classe Prefect First Class Special ranks Director General First Class (special and peripheral police offices)

The Chief of Police - Director General of Public Security and his Deputy are Prefects First Class (drawn from police career) but senior in rank to other Prefects, 1st Class, to Directors General, 1st Class (which is an internal subdivision of the rank Director General) and to Lieutenant General Inspector of the Royal Police Corps.

General Inspector of the Royal Police Corps (equivalent to an Army General)

Access to the prefectorial career is allowed exclusively through a public competition, which is followed by a training period of six months. Exception to this rule is the figure of the Prefect, who can be appointed drawing even from people who are not members of the prefectorial career. The prefectorial career consists of executive officials, except for the prefects, i.e. who have a executive (It: direttivo) rank.

Rank III - Prefect First Class

Prefects First Class are usually assigned to relevant and sensitive positions. Rank III - Prefect First Class is further subdivided into two Categories, "I" and "II". There are 26 assignments for the rank: 15 positions for Prefects First Class, Category "I" and 11 positions for Prefects First Class, Category "II". Differently from Vice-Prefects, also permanence in category is regulated by law and other legislation.

Rank IV - Prefect Second Class

Prefects Second Class are assigned to Administrative Regions and Prefectures, to the position of Deputy Head of the Directorates-General of the Ministry of Interior with the exception of the Directorate-General of Public Security, to the presidency or chairmanship of Boards and Commissions. The rank is subdivided into two Categories, "I" and "II". Differently from Vice-Prefects, also permanence in category is regulated by law and other legislation.

Rank V - Vice-Prefect

Rank V - Vice-Prefect is the highest rank of the prefectorial career lacking capacity to exercise powers delegated by law and not entrusted by the Minister. Vice-Prefects are subdivided into three Categories: I, II and III. While the permanence in rank requires mandatory requirements (both for promotion and for demotion), the permanence in Category depends exclusively on the assignment by the Minister.

Rank insignia

Shoulder rank insignia are used only with the dress uniform (worn only in ceremonies). Shoulder tabs are crimson, as crimson is the colour assigned to the Ministry of Interior.

Prefect Corps ranks and insignia
Prefect Corps rank Vice Consigliere di Prefettura Consigliere di Prefettura Direttore di Sezione (Prefettizio) Vice-Prefetto Ispettore Aggiunto Vice-Prefetto Ispettore Vice-Prefetto Prefetto di Seconda Classe Prefetto di Prima Classe
English translation Deputy Prefecture Councillor Prefecture Councillor Sectional Director (Prefectural) Additional Vice-Prefect Inspector Vice-Prefect Inspector Vice-Prefect Prefect, 2nd Class Prefect, 1st Class
Shoulder board insignia Vice Consigliere di Prefettura.png Consigliere di Prefettura.png Direttore di Sezione (Prefettizio).png Vice-Prefetto Ispettore Aggiunto.png Vice-Prefetto Ispettore.png Vice-Prefetto.png Prefetto di Seconda Classe.png Prefetto di Prima Classe.png

See also

Retrieved from "https://iiwiki.us/mediawiki/index.php?title=Prefect_(Kingdom_of_Italy)&oldid=613527"