Tuesday, June 19, 2007

"The Caste" Book on Corruption in Italy

The ANNOTICO Report

 

I am always in favor of exposes, in hopes that it will Slow the degree of Corruption, anywhere and everywhere.

 

This review however treats Corruption as typically Italian, when in fact the infractions reported are petty ante compared to even our own US,

 

Not only have we Not recovered from the Billion $ Frauds of the Tech Bubble, but the Financial Page continues to read like a Crime Report of Continuing Corporate Fraud.

 

Chicago, has little room to talk, always having had the title of the most corrupt city in the US, and still with it's Daly Machine , that would rate kudos from Tammany Hall, and Boss Tweed, et al.

 

Lord Conrad Black, is on Trial in Chicago for using the Hollinger Co as his own Piggy Bank , for substantially upwards of $60 million . His partner David Radler has already plead guilty. They owned and published the Chicago Sun Times.

 

In Los Angeles, the Mayors and Council Members in a number of the Suburbs are continually being marched off to Prison.

 

Roland Arnall the US Ambassador to Netherlands has been Indicted for his role in  Plundering AmeriQuest, now in Bankruptcy, after they already previously paid a $325 Million Fine for other Transgressions.

 

Oh Yes, On this Sunday's "60 Minutes", it exposed Paul Bremer,The US Diplomat in Charge in Iraq, of having  turned over $ 1.2 million to a used car salesman, that he appointed as Head of Iraqi Procurement to purchase Military Supplies. $400 million went to buy obsolete equipment, the other $ 800 million went missing. No body seems to be much interested in a thorough investigation since it seems that too many people benefited. 

 

There is little auditing of  Haliburton (Dick Cheney's old firm) and it's Subsidiaries Overcharging, and Charging for work Not done in the Billions in Iraq.

 

As hard as the Italians tried, they could NEVER match the Greed and Avarice in the US.

 

Almost forgot. Today's edition of the Los Angeles Times, page 3,  Headline screams" Brazil Scandals need Scorecard". But thus it has always been in Latin America and Asia.

 

But Chicago, taking a High and Mighty stand????????  That's Laughable !!!!!

 

 

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 instan ces 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.
- - -
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 i n state funds to pay aides but often pay out a quarter of that and pocket the rest.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/

chi-caste_tuesjun19,1,909888.story?coll=

chi-newsnationworld-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

 

The ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (and are Archived) on:

Italia USA: http://www.ItaliaUSA.com [Formerly Italy at St Louis] (7 years)

Italia Mia: http://www.ItaliaMia.com (3 years)

Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net