Corrupt Italy set to tighten laws

Italy, ranked 69th on the Transparency corruption index and with a reputation as bad as Nigeria’s, is set to clean up its acts.

And Italians today hailed the preliminary adoption by the Senate of a new anti-corruption law, saying it was a long needed effort to clamp down on a major drain for the country’s suffering economy.

“This is an important signal to Europe and the world from a country that wants to take on its most serious issues,” Interior Minister Annamaria Cancellieri said after Wednesday’s vote which had been delayed for weeks.

Anti-mafia prosecutor Piero Grasso said it was “a major success” for Prime Minister Mario Monti’s government but warned there was “quite a way to go”, following months of high-profile corruption scandals in the civil service.

The draft law, which still has to be approved definitively, increases the punishment for various types of corruption and bans any politician who has received a sentence of more than two years from running for public office.

Any civil servant convicted of corruption will also have to pay compensation to the state for financial and reputational damage to public service.

Other measures include increased oversight to boost transparency in public service and the drawing up of new lists of subcontractors without mafia ties.

The law will now go to the lower house of parliament for a vote in November.

Observers say the measures will underpin an ambitious reform effort launched by Monti’s government to boost the economy and keep public finances in check.

Italy and Greece scored the lowest among euro-area countries in the last global corruption ranking by Transparency International, following their inability to tackle graft and tax evasion.