Police raid CONSIP offices (6)

(ANSA) - Rome, April 13 - Police on Thursday raided the offices of civil-service procurement agency CONSIP in a probe into suspected graft on a 2.7-billion-euro contract. Campania businessman Alfredo Romeo, who has been arrested, is under investigation for allegedly paying kickbacks to get the contract, the largest of its kind in Europe.
    The raids extended the probe to the "whole" of the FM4 services tender, judicial sources said. The probe is, therefore, no longer confined to the three lots Romeo was aiming for, but all 18 portions of the tender, which 18 companies took part in.
    The father of ex-premier Matteo Renzi is also under investigation in the probe, as is Sports Minister Luca Lotti, Renzi's right-hand man.
    The elder Renzi is under investigation for suspected influence-peddling while Lotti is being probed for allegedly violating judicial secrecy by tipping off CONSIP head Luigi Marroni that there was a probe going on, enabling him to clear his office of listening devices.
    The probe took a twist this week when it was revealed that a police officer had wrongly attributed to Tiziano Renzi, the former premier's father, a phrase pronounced by centre-right politician Italo Bocchino about a contract Romeo got.
    Amid claims by some Renzi supporters that there had been a plot against the ex-premier and former leader of the ruling centre-left Democratic Party (PD), the police officer was placed under investigation for making false statements.
    The probe has pitted the PD against the anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S), which has accused Renzi of corruption.
    Renzi has said he does not believe in plots and has full confidence in the judiciary.
    Also on Thursday, Rome prosecutors asked to quiz a CONSIP director, Marco Gasparri, on his claims he received some 100,000 euros from Romeo over three years for information on tenders at the civil-service procurement agency. Prosecutors said they were aiming to "firm up" Gasparri's testimony against the high-profile businessman, who was arrested March 1.
    Meanwhile the police officer who filed the incorrect report, Gianpaolo Scafarto, on Thursday said he would refrain from further investigations in the case.
    Scafarto is a captain in the carabinieri's NOE environmental crime unit.