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Italian Public works corruption scandal leads to 4 arrests

Xinhua, March 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Four people, including a top official, were arrested and more than 50 are under investigation throughout Italy for alleged bribes linked to public works, local media said on Monday.

Ercole Incalza, a former top manager for public works at the infrastructure ministry under various governments from 2001 to 2014, was among those arrested.

Incalza, who currently works as a consultant, was defined by prosecutors in Florence, as a "very powerful manager" at the head of a "corruption system" for the management of public works contracts worth some 25 million euros (about 26.5 million U.S. dollars).

Contracts for Expo Milano 2015, the upcoming world exposition in Milan, and the TAV high-speed link between Lyon and Turin, as well as various highways and railways segments in Italy were among the public works targeted by the illegal system, Florence Chief Prosecutor Giuseppe Creazzo told a press conference.

Influential businessman, Stefano Perrotti, and two collaborators were also arrested, while a former Expo manager and some politicians were reported to be among those investigated, according to La Repubblica newspaper.

ANSA news agency said later on Monday that Perrotti also procured an unnecessary job as "steady supervisor" to the son of current Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi, Luca Lupi.

Lupi denied any wrongdoing saying he "never asked favors" for his son, according to Rai State television.

Waves of corruption scandals are at the root of serious problems in Italy, from lack of foreign investments to high public debt, investigative journalist Gian Antonio Stella wrote in a commentary published by Corriere della Sera newspaper on Monday.

Stella noted Italy was listed among the most corrupt countries in Europe in the Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index for 2014.

Stella called for more efficient moves to combat corruption, recalling a recent estimation of the Italian central bank saying that crime had cost the country around 16 billion euros (17 billion U.S. dollars) of missed investments just over a few years.

In response to widespread corruption in the public sector, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has repeatedly pledged to increase efforts to crack down through issuing tougher penalties.

Justice Minister Andrea Orlando said last week his government aimed to reinstate false accounting as a full-blown crime - it is currently a misdemeanor - as part of an anti-corruption package that is going through parliamentary procedure. Endit