Corruption makes up an estimated
40% of the overall value of large-scale public works contracts
in Italy, a think tank on corruption said Thursday.
"Italy ranked 61st in Transparency International's 2015
worldwide corruption rankings and came in second-to-last after
Bulgaria in the European rankings," said Professor Emanuele
Fisicaro, chief of the Anti-moneylaundering and Anticorruption
Research Center think tank, at a conference on combating
corruption organized by the city of Milan and the national
accountants' guild.
"A 2013 Eurobarometer survey shows 97% of Italians believe
corruption is rampant in Italy while 42% said they are
personally subjected to corruption in their daily life," he
added.
Fisicaro made an example of high-speed rail construction,
whose costs differ depending on the segment.
"Costs vary from 47.3 million euros per kilometer between
Rome and Naples, to 74 million between Turin and Novara, to 79.5
million between Novara and Milan, reaching 96.4 million per
kilometer between Bologna and Florence," he said.
This compares to 10.2 million euros per kilometer to build
high-speed rail links between Paris and Lyon, 9.8 million euros
between Madrid and Seville, and 9.3 million between Tokyo and
Osaka.
"We can infer that one in two public contracts could be
corrupt," Fisicara concluded.
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