The RUP and RUP support: who holds the budget of a public project

The RUP is appointed at the outset, not when the tender starts. For each procedure the contracting authority appoints a responsabile unico del progetto (RUP, the single project manager) in the first act relating to the project, and the RUP covers programming, design, award and performance (Legislative Decree 36/2023, art. 15(1)). The RUP is chosen from among the "employees, including those on fixed-term contracts" (unofficial translation) of the contracting authority who meet the requirements of Annex I.2 (Allegato I.2) (para. 2).

The RUP's mandate is one of results. The RUP ensures that the project is delivered on time and in line with its objectives, "carrying out all the activities set out in Annex I.2" (art. 15(5)). For the budget, one consequence can be drawn: the final cost is not only the concern of the works director or of the finance office, but falls within the objectives the RUP answers for.

Continuity is the main value. The same person sees the economic limits set before design, the validated estimate, the amount put out to tender, the signed contract, the variations and the riserve (contractor claims). It is this continuity that, on a private project, the client has to rebuild through contracts and periodic reports.

The RUP does not decide everything, but is present in every decision that moves the budget. The table summarises the main points and the source of each.

The first check on the budget is the consistency between design and economic limits. The documento di indirizzo alla progettazione (DIP, design brief) states "the economic limits to be respected and any indication of the financial cover for the work" (Annex I.7, art. 3(g)). The RUP may adjust, by reasoned instruction in the DIP, the list of documents for the progetto di fattibilità tecnico economica (PFTE, technical and economic feasibility design) (art. 6(7)), but cannot do without knowing what the design costs: the computo estimativo (priced estimate) and the economic summary remain at the heart of this stage.

Verification and validation close the design before the tender. Verification takes place in an exchange between verifier and designer, overseen by the RUP; validation of the design put out to tender is the formal act that takes up its results, signed by the RUP, and the contract notice cites its references (Legislative Decree 36/2023, art. 42(2) and (4)). What verification and validation check on cost is covered in Design verification and validation: what they check on cost. For the budget, signing the validation is the moment the RUP takes ownership of the estimate.

The RUP directs performance; the works director checks it on site. "Performance of contracts for works, services or supplies is directed by the RUP", who relies on the works director, the safety coordinator and the collaudatore (acceptance inspector) (art. 114(1)). The works director is appointed before the award procedure starts, on the RUP's proposal (para. 2).

Payments set the rhythm of cost control. Interim payments are made within 30 days of the adoption of each stato di avanzamento lavori (SAL, progress statement), and the payment certificate is issued by the RUP "within a period of no more than seven days" (art. 125(2) and (5)). Every SAL is therefore also a compulsory occasion to update the final cost forecast: committed, variations, price revision, claims.

On variations, the RUP is the filter between the site and the contracting authority. The works director proposes changes and variations to the RUP; the RUP assesses them and the contracting authority approves them (Annex II.14, art. 5(1) and (3)); the RUP authorises changes and variations according to the rules of the RUP's own contracting authority (art. 120(13)). New rates are approved by the RUP, but if they lead to expenditure above the economic summary they are approved by the contracting authority on the RUP's proposal (Annex II.14, art. 5(7) and (8)). Where the money to fund them comes from, the provisions and contingencies of the economic summary, is the subject of Variations during public works: how the contracting authority funds them.

Price revision draws on the same reserve. The contingency sums in the economic summary fund price revision up to 50 per cent of their amount, together with tender discounts and savings on completed works (art. 60(5)). A RUP who uses up the contingencies on variations loses the cover for price revision: the two lines must be read together.

Renegotiation has a deadline. Changes remain possible under art. 9 and the renegotiation clauses; failing these, the RUP proposes a new agreement "within a period of no more than three months" (art. 120(8)).

Claims are the signal the RUP cannot ignore. When the claims entered may change the economic value of the work "by between 5 per cent and 15 per cent of the contract amount", the RUP triggers the amicable settlement (art. 210(1), (4) and (5)); the proposal of the expert or of the RUP arrives within 90 days and must be accepted within 45 (paras. 5 and 6). For the budget, claims enter the forecast at their likely amount well before that threshold.

Withdrawal is an option to be quantified. The contracting authority may withdraw at any time, paying for work carried out, useful materials on site and one tenth of the amount of the works not carried out, with written notice of at least 20 days (art. 123(1) and (2)). Whoever assesses it must compare it with the cost of completion, not with the remaining budget.

The code provides that the RUP need not work alone. Contracting authorities may set up a "RUP support unit" and allocate resources to support assignments "not exceeding 1 per cent of the amount put out to tender" (Legislative Decree 36/2023, art. 15(6)). The reference is the amount put out to tender, not the total cost of the project.

For the budget, the useful functions of support are those the RUP struggles to carry out continuously: keeping the final cost forecast up to date at each SAL; preparing proposals for variations and new rates before they are assessed; checking consistency between successive estimates of the design; preparing assessments of claims. Support prepares the ground; decisions and signatures remain with the RUP and the contracting authority.

Support must not turn into a conflict of roles. For the same design, the code separates verification from design, safety coordination, works direction and acceptance testing (art. 42(2)). The same prudence applies to RUP support: whoever assists the RUP in controlling cost should not be whoever prepared the estimate or whoever directs the works whose variations they check.

Support is a cost of the project and should be provided for from the start. The 1 per cent is a ceiling, not an automatic allocation: the contracting authority decides whether and how much to set aside, and it is best done when the economic summary is drawn up, not once the site has started. Art. 15(6) provides for these assistance assignments to be awarded directly by the RUP; the rules for technical services, seen from the professional's side, are covered in the guide to the award of technical services.

The capacity to hold the budget also depends on how the authority is organised. The code provides for a qualification system for contracting authorities, which this guide does not cover and which is described in the guide to contracting authority qualification. For the budget, the practical consequence is what counts: a RUP without a support unit, in an authority with limited technical resources, is the case in which the support provided for by art. 15(6) pays off most.

The RUP is the model of what many private projects lack. A single person in charge, appointed at the outset, who signs off the estimate, filters variations, approves new rates within a limit and brings to the client's decision whatever exceeds it. In private work no rule requires it; the client can rebuild it with a well-written project management appointment and precise delegation to the works director, as described in Designer, works director, project manager: who answers for cost.