Highway agency ANAS offices searched in corruption probe

(ANSA) - ROME, OCT 3 - Milan finance police on Thursday carried out search operations in the offices of highway agency ANAS in Milan and Rome as part of a probe conducted by Milan prosecutors on charges of corruption and action rigging.
    The operation, first reported by the online edition of daily newspaper Repubblica, is being carried out as part of a probe coordinated by Milan prosecutors Tiziana Siciliano, Giovanni Polizzi and Giovanna Cavalleri on charges of corruption, auction rigging, revelation and use of confidential information.
    The investigators' hypothesis is that public tenders for the construction of roads were influenced in exchange for money.
    In particular, investigative sources said at least two ANAS officials are among those being probed by Milan prosecutors for allegedly granting tenders to specific companies in exchange for money over road construction work in Lombardy and in north-eastern Italy.
    ANAS offices in Milan and Rome as well as three companies that carried out work for the highway agency, including Consorzio Stabile Sis in Turin were searched by police as part of the the probe, which allegedly involves nine suspects, according to preliminary information.
    Investigators believe bribes for an estimated 400,000 euros were paid for the control of road construction contracts worth approximately 400 million euros, sources close to the probe said. (ANSA).