Corruption: «Local authorities under the thumb of the mafia»

The National Anti-Mafia Directorate: 40% of contracts are at risk of infiltration. And the new public contracts code signed by Lega-M5S has made things worse

Mafia-style corruption is the first evil that afflicts the Italian legal economy. And the administrative contexts most affected by the white collar workers of organized crime are the local autonomies: municipalities, regions, local health companies, consortia and subsidiaries. At least 600 million public contracts are at risk of infiltration, 40% of the total. To which another 400 million could be added, provided by the State as benefits for small municipalities.

To make matters worse, the changes to the public contracts code, launched with the 2019 budget: the innovations approved by the League and 5 Star have favored illegal practices, liberalized the criteria for awarding contracts for works between 40 thousand and 150 thousand euros, until 31 December this year. Lightening confirmed and extended by the Sblocca Cantieri decree, which came into force last June.

The National Anti-Mafia Directorate published the annual report on the activities carried out on 31 July, illustrating the dynamics and strategies of mafia-type organized crime. A summary of the #mafia report on the @aiutopubblico website https://t.co/n4wMxA3P79

mdash; Public Notice (@ public notice) August 29, 2019

Corruption: first point of interest for DNA

The complaints are contained in the latest annual report of the National Anti-Mafia and Counter-Terrorism Directorate (DNA), which puts corruption at the top of the poles of interest for investigators. Followed by gambling, environmental crime, drug trafficking and human trafficking linked to migration. The document, as well as the activities carried out by the National Prosecutor, Federico Cafiero De Raho and by DNA itself, highlights the dynamics and strategies of mafia-type organized crime in the period July 2017 - June 2018.

Unfortunately, the presentation went unnoticed: the government crisis penalized its impact. However, Notice Pubblico, the association of public administrators which since 2011 has been surveying the threats and violence directed at local administrators, has taken it up again, publishing its own report annually.

Mayors and administrators threatened on the rise, the Public Notice report

It is precisely mayors, councillors, municipal, municipal and regional councilors and public administration employees who are often subjected to mafia pressure. So much so that, as the investigators write, "the conditioning of local administrators and the corruption of officials" means that they become "the pawns of a criminal game aimed at increasing and extending mafia power".

This is how the 'ndrangheta and mafias influence the action of the State

From North to South, many examples of the modus operandi of the mafia. Put in black and white by the Anti-Mafia Directorate

And for those who don't "play the game", threats or retaliation. As many as 574 administrators were threatened in 2018, with an increase of 7% compared to the previous year. With 84 provinces involved, 78.5% of the national territory, the highest figure ever recorded and 309 municipalities affected. «This is also why we consider the approval of law no. as an important achievement. 105 of 2017. Thanks to which, the Observatory on the phenomenon of intimidating acts against local administrators was established at the Ministry of the Interior » explains Roberto Montà, president of Notice Public to Valori.

Municipalities and local health authorities dissolved due to the mafia, the other side of the coin

The attacks are the tip of an iceberg symbolized by the dissolution of municipalities and local health authorities due to mafia infiltration. There were 23 decisions decided in 2018, to which must be added 20 provisions for the extension of previous decrees and 12 in the first nine months of 2019. "Parliament has just recently begun the examination of two bills which seem to go, at least in part, in the direction we hope for, we need to improve the reference regulatory framework" reiterates Montà. Punish those who collude and support the honest.

Also because, as the DNA experts write, «in a period characterized by massive public debt and very limited public resources, very few public works are financed at a national level. So the majority of contracts are necessarily announced by local authorities." Municipalities, regions, consortia and public subsidiaries are precisely "the most important center of attribution of public spending, and precisely for this reason they are the context in which mafia organizations find it convenient to operate".

«Preventing mafias from entering procurement is a duty»: interview with Federico Cafiero De Raho National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor (presentation of the Ecomafie Legambiente Report) @SNPAmbiente @Forchielli @GianniGirotto @FIMAit @gablanzi @vdangerio @fimianif https://t.co/SCVp2hynER

mdash; Walter Ganapini (@wganapini) July 8, 2019

Local authorities and procurement, lifeblood for crime, without controls

The game of the mafia at the moment is then "facilitated" by the blocking of some regulations aimed at stopping the collusive phenomenon, which permeates Italian society. What makes the "usual suspects" win tenders and notices drawn up with certain characteristics. Just last July 15th, Anac had to endorse the suspension, requested by the government, until 2020, of the national register of members of the judging commissions.

The rule is foreseen by the new reform of the Contract Code. Yet, DNA underlines, among the main ways of manipulating tenders there are both the use of specifications, drawn up with characteristics possessed only by the company it intends to favor, and the piloted training of awarding commissions.

Reporting of offenses in the Public Administration: the summary of the 4th ANAC Report on the Public Notice website #Whistleblower #whistleblowing #corruption https://t.co/KABl1llARy

mdash; Public Notice (@ public notice) August 30, 2019

«Worriing simplifications» on at least 600 million contracts

That's not enough: organized and corporate crime is also facilitated by the latest rules passed with the 2018 Budget Law, approved last December by the first Conte government (the yellow-green one, so to speak), which have watered down the more stringent principles also desired by the Anti-Corruption Authority. DNA writes: «Given this evidence, the “simplification” introduced by the 2018 budget law cannot help but be a cause for concern». To which were added those of the Unblock Construction Sites law.