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Italian earthquakes of corruption JUST Response interviews Domenico Pacitti JUST Response: You have recently drawn attention to the failure of foreign
commentators and the international mainstream press to understand
natural disasters in Italy as yet another major source of
exploitation for corruption. Could you say something about this? Domenico Pacitti: Natural disasters reveal the true soul of a nation. In the case of
Italy what they reveal is that the soul is dead since they are
traditionally exploited for personal financial gain. In Italy
natural disasters arrive like manna from heaven and are prayed for
by politicians, local administrators and company directors. It
would be difficult to think of anything more nauseating and yet
this has long been an accepted Italian speciality. If you think I
am exaggerating, let's just have a look at some of the facts. Take
the earthquake that struck the village of San Giuliano di Puglia
in the southern Italian region of Molise on 31 October of last
year. Twenty-six children and three adults lost their lives,
while 61 people were injured and some 3,000 were made
homeless. The tragic facts were widely reported in the foreign
press. The very few newspapers that looked further found the
pre-disaster corruption component, namely that the new school
building which collapsed had been designed and built with a view
to profitmaking rather than safety. What none of them reported was
the follow-up social earthquake of post-disaster
corruption. JUST Response: And what was that? Pacitti:
The consortium of 54 private companies that carried out the wooden
shelter reconstruction work were placed under investigation by
magistrates for fraud and corruption. They are alleged to have
secured contracts through bribes and to have supplied fraudulent
receipts for the supply of materials. Also, public administrators
are alleged to have paid out exorbitant amounts of cash for
materials priced at five times going market rates. The mayor of
San Giuliano appears to be involved in both areas. As if that were
not enough, seventy-three members of the Italian Red Cross were
charged with illegally claiming 400 euros a month each for
nonexistent expenses. As far as I know, the cases are still
ongoing. JUST Response: So Italian natural disasters reveal pre-disaster corruption and give
rise to post-disaster corruption. Pacitti:
That's certainly the usual pattern, though it's not of course a
watertight scientific law. JUST Response: Can you illustrate this? Pacitti:
Well let's look at some other cases. In the May 1998 mudslides at
Sarno in the Campania region 155 lost their lives and 30,000 were
left homeless. Pre-disaster corruption that contributed to
the catastrophe included the illegal building of inadequate
housing in unsafe areas by local crime clans. Added to this, trees
on mountain slopes that had helped keep the earth stable had been
illegally chopped down and plundered. Romano Prodi and Oscar
Luigi Scalfaro, who were respectively premier and president at the
time, promised swift action. Predictably, the swift action came in
the form of post-disaster corruption. Following complaints two
years later that just four million euros out of initial government
funding of 100 million had actually been spent on the town of
Sarno, magistrates began to investigate. JUST Response: Remarkable. Pacitti: In
September 1997 earth tremors hit the Umbria and Marche regions
killing ten people. I think two or three of the 500 who were
injured eventually died from their injuries and about 22,000 were
evacuated. Less than half of them were housed in temporary
accommodation. Magistrates are still investigating profiteering
relating to the supply of wooden and metal containers used for
accommodation. There have been other arrests for threats aimed at
securing contract work, violation of contractual procedures to
favour the Mafia and serious fraud against public institutions. JUST Response: That certainly seems to bear out what you are saying. Pacitti:
Bear in mind that we are talking about a so-called modern western
democracy with the world's eighth largest economy in terms of
gross domestic product. But there have been even worse cases. The
worst case in every sense was the Irpinia earthquake in Campania
in November 1980. It is reported to have killed 2,735, injured
8,850 and left 45,050 homeless out of a population of 66,000. An
Italian newspaper investigation at the time, directed incidentally
by Indro Montanelli, revealed that the equivalent of 26 thousand
million euros – almost three quarters of the entire funding for
reconstruction – ended up in the hands of politically backed
local Mafia. To date 382 people have been arrested on the usual
Mafia and corruption charges. Over a hundred are politicians and
local administrators, about 90 are Camorra clan bosses and
members, and about 80 are company directors. During the ten years
between 1984 and 1994, just over 900 town council administrators
received criminal charges. This incredible sum of money, which
could have transformed the entire region into a sort of
terrestrial paradise, simply disappeared without trace. And it’s
worth adding that major Christian Democrat politicians figured
prominently among those who guided corruption. Note: This interview
appeared in JUST
Response
on August 30 2003. |
