Offices working directly under the Minister

The Foreign Minister is responsible for the political guidance of the Ministry. He formulates the programmes and objectives to be followed on the basis of the general lines laid down by the government.

Offices working directly under the Minister

The offices working directly under the Minister provide support for the policy guidance unit and liaise between this unit and the Ministry, in accordance with Articles 4 and 14.2 of Legislative Decree 165/2001. They collaborate on drawing up objectives and formulating public policy, and evaluating the same, with special regard to legislative impact assessments, cost-benefit analyses and ensuring that results are consistent with objectives.

The offices working directly under the Minister are:

• the Private Office;
• the Minister's Secretariat;
• the Legal Affairs Office;
• the Office for Relations with Parliament;
• the Internal Control Service and its support office;
• the secretariats of the Under-Secretaries of State.

The Minister is also assisted in his tasks by his Advisers.

The Private Office:
The Head of the Private Office coordinates all the work carried out by the offices working directly under the Minister. The Private Office helps the Head of the Private Office in his or her duties and those delegated by the Minister.

The Minister's Secretariat: The Secretariat is headed and coordinated by the Head of the Secretariat. The Secretariat includes the Minister's Personal Secretary, who is responsible for the Minister's agenda and correspondence and his or her personal relations with respect to the ministerial role.

The Legal Affairs Office: is responsible for the following tasks: formulation of legislative and regulatory provisions promoted by the MFA, with due attention to the quality of the legal language; feasibility analyses of provisions introduced and the simplification and streamlining of legislative provisions; procedures for the approval and issuing of provisions; scrutiny of provisions submitted to the Council of Ministers and preparation of related documentation; scrutiny of parliamentary provisions and legislative and regulatory provisions drawn up by other Government Departments; legal advice on domestic legal issues; all other functions envisaged by law.

Office for Relations with Parliament: which is responsible for the following tasks: assisting the Foreign Minister and the Under-Secretaries in their parliamentary activities; following parliamentary control and policy guidance proceedings of interest to the Ministry; coordinating responses to supervisory inspections; monitoring the passage through Parliament of legislative and regulatory provisions promoted by or of interest to the MFA; overseeing arrangements for contacts with Members of Parliament.

Internal Control Service: In accordance with Legislative Decree 165 of 30 March 2001 and Legislative Decree 286 of 30 July 1999, the Internal Control Office operates in a position of operational and evaluational autonomy and answers directly to the Minister.

The Internal Control Service performs the following tasks:

• evaluates the choices made in the implementation of plans, programmes and other policy guidance instruments, with a view to ensuring that the results achieved are consistent with the objectives set; collects and evaluates information and data on the effects of policies implemented and measures adopted; and, in exercising its guidance powers pursuant to Articles 4 and 14.1 of Legislative Decree 165/2001, verifies that the choices made in objectives and other policy guidance documents have actually been implemented, with the aim, inter alia, of identifying any factors obstructing this process and responsibilities for such obstruction, and suggesting any corrective measures;
• assists the Minister in drafting the annual directive pursuant to Article 14 of Legislative Decree 165/2001 and helps set the parameters for the evaluation of the activity in question;
• provides guidance for the evaluation of management officers in charge of responsibility centres;
• including at the Minister's request, carries out analyses of the implementation of policies and programmes, information flows and the administration's overall system of internal controls; and carries out organisational analyses designed to highlight the costs and performance of the organisational structure and lines of activity of the administration.

The Control Body is in charge of the Internal Control Service (The Director)