Concorso ADM Funzionari common mistakes
Concorso ADM Funzionari · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Treating L. 241/1990 as a single block of rules to recite, so that when a question asks which regime applies to a given act the candidate cannot distinguish the general procedural rules (artt. 1-21) from accesso documentale (artt. 22-28) and from accesso civico generalizzato (d.lgs. 33/2013), and mixes the time limits, the holders of the right and the remedies.
Candidates memorise isolated articles without building a map of the law's architecture; the exam deliberately tests the boundaries between the three access regimes and between provvedimento, accordo and silenzio, which look similar in the abstract but have different rules.
What to do instead
Draw a one-page schema with three columns (accesso documentale, accesso civico semplice, accesso civico generalizzato) and rows for: interest required, addressee, grounds for refusal, term for deciding, remedy. Do the same for silenzio-assenso, silenzio-rifiuto and SCIA. Rebuild the schema from memory weekly and check it against the text of the law.
On questions about the vizi dell'atto amministrativo, labelling every defect as nullità or annullabilità by intuition, or confusing eccesso di potere with violazione di legge when the facts describe a flawed motivation or a contraddittory istruttoria.
The three categories are taught together and the exam scenarios are written to sit close to the border; candidates also forget that nullità is now codified in art. 21-septies and that incompetenza relativa and violazione di legge are distinct.
What to do instead
Learn one canonical example per category (incompetenza, eccesso di potere per difetto di motivazione or sviamento, violazione di legge) and practise classifying short fact patterns, stating for each the norma violata and the consequence. Rehearse the art. 21-octies comma 2 rule on non-annullability for formal defects that do not affect the outcome.
Answering questions on gerarchia, competenza and riserva di legge by citing the Constitution alone, without placing the source in the correct rank and without checking whether an EU regulation or directive, a legge ordinaria or a regolamento is the applicable norm; and treating directives as directly applicable in vertical disputes.
The constitutional and EU domains overlap, and candidates study them separately; the result is that they apply the disapplication doctrine to regulations, or forget the primacy of EU law as interpreted in the Corte costituzionale's case law (Granital, Frontini, Taricco).
What to do instead
Build a source hierarchy table with, for each level, who may disapply it and on what grounds, and add a column for EU sources (regulation, directive with direct effect, decision). Memorise the sentenze that anchor the relationship (Frontini, Granital, Fragd, Taricco) with a one-line holding each.
On obbligazioni and contratti, answering from general impressions about 'good faith' and 'equity' instead of identifying the specific norm: e.g. confusing mora del debitore with mora del creditore, or failing to distinguish rescissione, risoluzione per inadempimento and recesso.
Civil law questions in a concorso are usually short scenarios where the correct answer depends on naming the exact istituto and its effects; candidates who studied only manuals skim the differences and answer by tone.
What to do instead
For each istituto (mora, risoluzione, rescissione, nullità, annullabilità, clausola penale, caparra) write a card with: presupposto, effetti, termine di prescrizione, articoli. Then solve 20 short cases and justify the choice in one sentence citing the article.
Studying the codice doganale dell'Unione (reg. UE 952/2013) only through the Italian Testo Unico doganale or old national practice, so that questions on the valore in dogana, on the regime of the dichiarazione, on decisioni doganali and on the figure of the operatore economico autorizzato are answered with outdated or national-only rules.
Much Italian study material predates the CDU and the delegated and implementing regulations; candidates revise from summaries that still use pre-2016 terminology and procedures.
What to do instead
Work directly on the CDU structure: title by title, with the articles for decisioni (artt. 22-37), valore (artt. 69-76), origine (artt. 59-68) and debito doganale (artt. 77-100). Keep a glossary mapping old Italian terms to the CDU terms, and verify every rule against the consolidated text before memorising it.
Confusing the regimes of accise and of monopoli: applying the general accisa rules to prodotti soggetti ad accisa in regime sospensivo without distinguishing the deposito fiscale, the destinatario registrato and the operatore registrato, or mixing the monopoly regime for tabacchi and giochi with the customs regime.
The three areas (accise, monopoli, giochi) share the same administration and are often taught in one chapter; the differences in authorisation, guarantee and circulation documents are the exact point the exam tests.
What to do instead
Create a matrix of the figure soggettive (depositario autorizzato, destinatario registrato, operatore registrato, piccolo produttore) with obligations, guarantees and documents required for each. Treat tabacchi and giochi as separate columns with their own authorisation and control rules, and check the current state of the concessioni and the disciplina delle scommesse.
On contabilità di Stato, reciting the names of documents (bilancio di previsione, rendiconto, conto consuntivo) without knowing the phases of entrata and spesa, the role of the ragioniere dello Stato, or the difference between impegno, liquidazione, ordinazione e pagamento; similarly, on contratti pubblici, applying the old code instead of the current d.lgs. 36/2023.
These domains are often left to the end of the study plan and revised from old notes; the entry into force of the new procurement code and the annual budget-cycle reforms make dated material actively misleading.
What to do instead
Learn the spesa cycle as a sequence with the responsible organ at each step, and the budget documents with their approval deadlines. For contratti pubblici, study the d.lgs. 36/2023 by istituto (programmazione, affidamento, soglie, procedure, esecuzione) and check the digitalisation provisions, which the exam now tests.
On pubblico impiego, applying the rules of the privatised employment relationship to questions that concern the area of dirigenza or the prerogative powers of the administration, or vice versa invoking the giurisdizione amministrativa where the giudice ordinario has jurisdiction.
The boundary between giurisdizione ordinaria and amministrativa in pubblico impiego depends on the nature of the act (atto di gestione vs atto di macro-organizzazione) and candidates learn the rule but not its application to concrete acts.
What to do instead
Make a decision tree: is the act a provvedimento amministrativo or a management act? Is the question about dirigenza, accesso, or a sanzione disciplinare? For each branch note the competent judge and the leading Cassazione rulings. Practise with 10 borderline cases.
Approaching Informatica e competenze digitali as generic computer literacy, so that questions on SPID, CIE, PEC, firma digitale, conservazione dei documenti, open data and the CAD (d.lgs. 82/2005) are answered with everyday knowledge rather than the specific legal and technical requirements.
Candidates assume this domain is easy and skip it, but the exam asks about the legal value of digital signatures, the difference between firma elettronica qualificata and firma digitale, and the obligations of the amministrazione digitale.
What to do instead
Study the CAD by theme: documenti informatici and their conservation, firme elettroniche and their legal effects, pagamenti elettronici, open data and trasparenza. For each theme, learn the definition and the legal consequence, and check the current Agenzia per l'Italia Digitale guidelines.
In the English section, translating Italian legal terms literally (e.g. 'provvedimento' as 'provision', 'concorso' as 'contest') and losing time on long reading passages instead of answering the specific question asked; in the tax section, confusing imposta, tassa and contributo and misapplying the principle of riserva di legge in materia tributaria (art. 23 Cost.).
The English part is often left unrehearsed, and the tax part is revised through lists of tributi rather than through the constitutional and statutory framework; both habits produce avoidable errors on otherwise known material.
What to do instead
Build a bilingual glossary of 100 core terms with their accepted English equivalents and rehearse timed reading passages with a question-first strategy. For diritto tributario, study the categories of tributo with one example each, the artt. 23 and 53 Cost., the Statuto del contribuente and the structure of the accertamento, then test yourself on fact patterns rather than definitions.