italy's problems

http://iht.com/articles/2007/12/12/news/italy.php

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/06/18/europe/EU-GEN-Italy-The-Caste.php

Book Rips Cover Off Corruption in Italy

Chicago Tribune

By Alessandra Rizzo
Associated Press
June 19, 2007

ROME -- Lawmakers pocketing wads of state money. A presidential palace whose upkeep costs four times more than Buckingham Palace's. A justice minister who hires his friend, a fish trader, as a consultant on prison construction.

In Italy -- a country never reputed for the probity of its political class -- abuse of office is rampant, according to a best seller portraying an overpaid, power-hungry elite swilling taxpayers' money like Chianti.

"The Caste," which has sold a remarkable 465,000 copies since its publication in May, is stoking an atmosphere that some compare to the eve of the "Clean Hands" scandal of the 1990s, which wiped out much of the ruling class.

"You know what really, really makes me mad? Having to work to support these parasites," said Beppe Grillo, a comedian known for his sharp anti-establishment criticism.

"Calling them 'the caste' is a compliment," he wrote on his Web site. "Their name is scum."

The book came out just as the government was asking Italians to tighten their belts for the good of the country. Many citizens already were deeply disillusioned by scandals and acrimony between the center-left bloc of Premier Romano Prodi and the opposition led by conservative Silvio Berlusconi.

"They are a caste that feels above the society they claim to serve," write the authors, Gian Antonio Stella and Sergio Rizzo, political reporters for Italy's top daily, Corriere della Sera.

The book claims government ministers regularly award lucrative consultant jobs to cronies regardless of their expertise.

It notes that as justice minister, Roberto Castelli awarded a consultancy contract worth $267,000 to oversee jail construction to his friend, a fish trader. Castelli argued that the friend brought "a new mentality to the job." A court ordered him to refund half the money.

Since the book appeared, other instances of alleged misbehavior have added to the outrage. This month, a senator came under heavy criticism and offered to resign for using an ambulance as a taxi to beat traffic jams caused by President Bush's visit to Rome.

"The Caste" and the many debates it has provoked have stung Prodi's government into action. It has appointed a panel of Cabinet ministers and other officials to write legislation to eliminate unnecessary state bodies, cut salaries, curb the number of consultants and be more transparent about public salaries.
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Abuses by the numbers Among the waste and abuses alleged in "The Caste":

*In 2004, the governor of the Campania region spent $1.2 million in entertainment expenses, 12 times what was spent for entertainment in 2006 by Germany's president.

*The Quirinale presidential palace has more than 1,000 employees and its upkeep is four times that of Buckingham Palace.

*Italian lawmakers each receive more than $5,300 a month in state funds to pay aides but often pay out a quarter of that and pocket the rest.