Presidency of the Council of Ministers (Italy)
The Presidency of the Council of Ministers () is the administrative structure which supports the Prime Minister of Italy (referred to in Italian as the President of the Council of Ministers). It is thus the Italian equivalent of the Prime Minister's Office. It contains those departments which carry out duties invested in the office of the Prime Minister. Duties invested in the Italian executive government generally are not administered by the Presidency, but by the individual ministries. History. The creation of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers is comparatively recent and is  closely connected with the acquisition of significant autonomy by the Prime Minister. For a long time, the Prime Minister was not very prominent in his own right, separate from the government and the individual ministries which he controlled. Thus, until 1960, the headquarters of the Presidency of the Council was in the Palazzo del Viminale - the same location as the Ministry of the Interior. Throughout the period of the Kingdom of Italy, the Prime Minister used the Viminale to execute his will, and often held the position of Minister of the Interior concurrently. This relationship was so close that the  Prime Minister's letterhead was the same as that of the Ministry of the Interior. During the fascist period, Mussolini used the Palazzo Venezia as his personal headquarters, but did not base his government there. However, it was during Mussolini's government that the first regulations of government activity took place, with the passage of Royal Decree law no.1100 of 10 July 1924, relating to the cabinet of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. With the institution of the Italian Republic, it returned to the Viminale. In 1961, Palazzo Chigi came to be used as a headquarters for the  government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which had been based there up to this point was transferred to its current headquarters in the Palazzo della Farnesina. After this, the Presidency of the Council began to take shape, although not in an organic manner, since it lacked a law which regulated its entire operation. In 1988, the government of Ciriaco De Mita approved law no. 400, which regulated the Presidency. In 1999, under the government of Massimo D'Alema the re-organisation of the presidency was carried out with Decree law no.303 of 30 July 1999, part of the Bassanini reforms . Structure. The structure of the Presidency of the Council, according to the DPCM of 1 March 2011 and the DPCM of 21 June 2012, is organised into offices which work with the Prime Minister directly; general departments and offices which the Prime Minister employs for directing and co-ordinating specific political and institutional areas; general offices which support the Prime Minister in general co-ordination and general political direction; and technical support. Offices which collaborate with the Prime Minister directly. The Offices of the Prime Minister's staff are: Offices for directing and co-ordinating political and institutional areas. These  are offices and departments of the Presidency, through which the Prime Minister addresses and co-ordinates specific political and institutional areas. They are under the control of the Secretary General of the Presidency, but are usually entrusted to an Undersecretary of State or a Minister without portfolio. Offices for general co-ordination and direction. These are offices and departments which support the Prime Minister in general political co-ordination and direction, as well as providing technical support. Normally, these are under the control of the Secretary General of the Presidency, but they can be assigned to the Undersecretaries of State . National security. The Presidency controls the Department of Information for Security, which has a special role in the supervision of the Italian intelligence services (i.e. the secret service), which report directly to the Prime Minister, who can delegate functions which are not exclusively vested in the Prime Minister to ministers without portfolio or Undersecretaries of state. Other offices. The Presidency of the Council deals with the personnel of the Administrative Courts ( and the Council of State), the Audit Courts (Court of Audit and its regional sections), the Tax Courts (Provincial and regional ), and the Government legal service ( and district attorneys ). The Presidency is responsible for the administrative management of personnel, including hiring processes. However, these various courts retain their powers of self-regulation. Committees and commissions. There are some commissions and committees based at the Presidency. They are: Extraordinary Commissariats. Extraordinary commissariats can be established for the achievement of specific objectives and temporary issues. They are: Supervised entities. Finally, there are a series of entities under the supervision of the presidency. They are: