Renzi govt's civil reform approved

(ANSA) - Rome, August 4 - Premier Matteo Renzi saluted the opponents to his government's ambitious programme after one of its flagship reforms, an overhaul of Italy's civil service, won final approval in the Senate on Tuesday.
    The bill passed with 145 yeas to 97 nays and no abstentions, although the opposition indirectly contributed to the victory.
    If opponents had snubbed the vote, rather than voting against, quorum would not have been reached, annulling the outcome.
    Nevertheless, Renzi was jubilant at the approval of an important piece of his programme. "Another piece: civil-service reform approved," Renzi said on his Twitter account. "A hug to my ill-wisher friends". Renzi calls ill-wishers (or owls - 'gufi) those who want his government and its reformist agenda to fail, allegedly including some members of his own centre-left Democratic Party (PD).
    The government has passed, among others, controversial reforms of the labour market and the schools sector as well as introducing a new election system.
    It is also pushing through a bill to overhaul Italy's slow, costly political machinery, including the transformation of the Senate into a leaner assembly of local-government representatives with limited powers.
    The civil service law makes it possible for civil managers to lose their jobs if they perform badly and introduces a merit-based system for senior bureaucrats.
    It also seeks to encourage greater use of the Internet so the public can obtain more public services online and introduces a single emergency service number, 112, replacing the separate ones that currently exist for the police, paramedics and the fire brigade. The reform reorganises the nation's police forces too and abolishes one, the forest guards, who will be incorporated into one of the others.
    Another measure brings in an Italian freedom of information act, giving the public the right to access public sector documents and data.
    The measures must still be signed by the head of state and published in the official gazette before becoming law.