CORRUPTION AND BRIBERY IN ITALY

OVERVIEW:

The position of the Italian penal code about corruption A worldwide overview of corruption Who is implied in bribery for the Italian law? What are the punishments? Recent legislative decree against corruption Italian scandals of corruption in the PA Summary and conclusion

THE PENAL CODE

For the italian legislation, bribery and corruption are considered as crimes and they are disciplined by the penal procedure which implies the payment of an amount of money and imprisonment.

Concerning the penal code, it is possible to find an explanation and the relative punishment for corruption and bribery in the book II, about Crimes, title II, Crimes against the public administration.

THREE TYPES OF BRIBERY:

Italian legislation recognizes three different types of bribery: 1) the first type of bribery recognized by the Italian penal code is the one related to crimes personally committed by a public official.

2) the second type of bribery is the one related to personal agreements between a public official and someone from the private sector.

3) the third type of bribery is the one related to the mere illegal payment of a public official by a representative for the private sector.

A WORLDWIDE OVERVIEW

The representation above shows the perception of corruption in 2009 as a result of a survey carried out by Transparency International. This survey aimed to point out what citizens felt about the corruption of politicians and public officials in their country. The green colour stays for a low perception of corruption, the red colour is instead for a high perception of corruption. As we can see, Italy is the only red state in western Europe, which means that Italian people feel their country to be highly corrupted.

WHO IS IMPLIED, FOR THE ITALIAN LAW, IN CASE OF CORRUPTION?

For the italian legislation everyone is responsible for his/her own actions as human being, it is not relevant the position that he/she covers. For public official it is meant all the people whose job cover a legislative function, this includes also regional advisor, relatively to their function in the public sector.

Both a corrupted public official and the person who tried to corrupt him/her are responsible for a crime, so they have to respond about it personally and directly.

WHAT ARE THE PUNISHMENTS?

Payment of money Imprisonment

If bribery is proved, the people involved in it have to pay an amount of money decided by a court.

If bribery is proved, the people involved in it will be imprisoned for a period of time that can vary from 2 to 5 years.

This measures are meant both to punish illegal behaviours and to warn other people from doing it.

RECENT LEGISLATIVE DECREE AGAINST BRIBERY IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION

In 2003, with the DL. 16/01/03 n. 3, the Italian parliament has finally stated a set of rules regarding the Public Administration to avoid corruption. It takes under consideration all the fields that may be affected by bribery, like: - education, university and research - public defense - innovation policies - health services - communication - etc.

ITALIAN SCANDALS OF BRIBERY

Craxi scandal (1992): secretary on the socialist party and part of the government at that time, he was accused for Tangentopoli, where private citizens used to pay the socialist party to have some favours. 90s scandals: the 90s have been a long period of scandals in Italy because lots of politicians were accused of having a relationship with the mafia to obtain favours inside the parliament. Marrazzo scandal (November 09): Governor of Lazio, the Italian Carabinieri received money from him not to tell about his relationship with a trans-sexual, that was then found to be dead.

SUMMARY & CONCLUSIONS:

Italian government has provided some specific laws to avoid bribery and corruption among the public officials; For the Italian penal code, bribery and corruption are considered as heavy crimes, which imply also imprisonment. Even though Italy keeps on being a corrupted country as reflected from citizens perception of corruption and from all the scandals in the last twenty years.