Global Integrity Report: Italy - 2010

This peer-reviewed country report includes:

Integrity Indicators Scorecard: Scores, scoring criteria, commentary, references, and peer review perspectives for more than 300 Integrity Indicators.

Reporter's Notebook: An on-the-ground look at corruption and integrity from a leading local journalist.

Corruption Timeline: Ten years of political context to today's corruption and integrity issues.

HIGHLIghts

Italy's performance on the Global Integrity Report: 2010 has changed little from its previous assessments despite a new round of corruption allegations surrounding senior government officials. Italy scores well on media freedoms, both in law and in practice (investigative journalists routinely report about corruption cases in the country). Despite the vitality of Italy's political parties (both in power and in opposition), the country's performance around promoting transparency of the financing of political parties is extremely poor. The public is unable to access political parties' or individual candidates' financial reports. Similarly, while judges are required to file asset disclosure reports, they are publicly inaccessible. Italy rates poorly on dimensions of governance relating to public administration and professionalism, and there are virtually no whistle blower protection laws in place. Enforcement of conflicts of interest regulations remain a major challenge across much of government and negatively impact the procurement process. In more encouraging news, the national ombudsman is well-funded and generally effective, as are the national tax collection agency and the country's supreme audit institution. The judiciary is considered independent and impartial in its decisions.

From the Reporter's Notebook: In March 2010, Berlusconi announced with great fanfare that he was addressing corruption: A new bill that would fight corruption had been drafted and approved during a meeting of the Council of Ministers. But by April2011, no further steps had been taken to move the bill through Parliament. Instead, after being investigated in December 2010 on sex and abuse of office-related charges, Berlusconi dusted off the “gagging law” draft bill, shouting that he wants to get rid of the “Judicial Republic of prosecutors.” The “gagging law” would ban journalists from reporting transcripts of wiretaps until the end of a preliminary investigation.