Public waste, fraud cost 4.1 bn in 2014 - finance police

(ANSA) - Rome, April 8 - Wasteful use of public money and fraud cost the State 4.1 billion euros in 2014, Italy's finance police force (GDF) said Wednesday in its annual report. The report added that 3,700 people were reported to prosecutors last year for alleged crimes in which the public sector was the injured party. Public contracts worth around 1.8 billion euros, more than a third of those that the finance police ran checks on and monitored, were illegally assigned in 2014, the report said.
    It said that 44 people were arrested and 933 others reported to prosecutors in relation to these offences. The finance police said it ran checks on 220 public contracts last year with a combined value of 4.6 billion euros.