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Italy's mafia eyes control of public works

01 July 2014 21:56 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Suspected mafia infiltrations in Italy's public works have been at the center of recent probes of which led to the latest arrest on Tuesday of 20 people who allegedly tried to control works on a high-speed rail link, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

Police revealed in a press conference held in the northern city of Turin that works on TAV high-speed rail link, which is under construction across the French-Italian border, were among the contracts that syndicates have tried to infiltrate.

It emerged from investigations that 'Ndrangheta, a type of mafia based in southern Calabria region, had managed to gain "huge control" over public-sector tenders in the territory of the industrialized city, where the TAV construction site is located.

"This probe has proved the propensity of organized crime to act in franchising," police commander Mario Parente was quoted as saying by Turin-based La Stampa newspaper.

Syndicates were replicating in northern cities "crime patterns such as occupation of the territory, intimidation and threats which used to be typical of southern regions," where mafias have their traditional strongholds, he highlighted.

TAV, an important item on the agenda of the Italian government, was not the only public-sector work to be threatened by mafia infiltrations into contract-bidding which have become frequent events on the Italian headlines.

Assets to the tune of more than 15 million euros (20.5 million U.S. dollars) were seized in connection with Tuesday's case, including 145 properties, 25 vehicles, 18 companies, bank accounts and a yacht, according to local reports.

Besides TAV, the Expo Milano 2015, which will run in the northern business capital from May 1 to October 31, as well as MOSE, an anti-floods project which is under construction in water city Venice, were at the center of big recent scandals.

Several top officials in Milan were found by the local judiciary in May to be mired in a graft network related to the upcoming world exposition.

The subsequent wave of arrests led the president of Lombardy region of which Milan is the capital Roberto Maroni to warn that the world-famous event - in which Italy's public sector plans to invest 1.3 billion euros (1.8 billion U.S. dollars) - risked "missing the April 30 deadline."

Days after, around 100 people were put under investigation and 35 detained including top officials charged with corruption, graft and laundering linked to MOSE. Venice Mayor Giorgio Orsoni was among them and resigned in the following days amid angered reactions.

According to those questioned by police, as much as 1 billion euros (1.4 billion U.S. dollars), almost 20 percent of the state funds so far spent on MOSE, may have been used as bribery.

Following increasing calls for justice in a country which was shocked by the multiple scandals, the government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi last month adopted an anti-corruption decree which gave the head of national anti-corruption authority Raffaele Cantone extraordinary powers to supervise public tenders and impose penalties.

But the local press meanwhile has continued to report dozens of arrests and multimillion seizures almost every week, especially in the service industry, real estate and trade which the judiciary said have become the legitimate sectors where the new syndicates have invested their profits.

Recent investigations have sounded the alarm that mafias have turned their hands to the power and wealth centers of Italy. Authoritative experts have warned that the country has to succeed in an anti-corruption mentality shift or will be destined to "collapse" under the weight of an insane economy.