Not only banks. Criminological models on the infiltration of public contracts by Italian organized crime
| Published date | 08 May 2009 |
| Pages | 151-172 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13685200910951910 |
| Date | 08 May 2009 |
| Author | Stefano Caneppele,Francesco Calderoni,Sara Martocchia |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Not only banks
Criminological models on the infiltration
of public contracts by Italian organized crime
Stefano Caneppele and Francesco Calderoni
TRANSCRIME – Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime,
Universita
`Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, Milan, Italy and
Universita
`Degli Studi, Di Ternto, Ternto, Italy, and
Sara Martocchia
TRANSCRIME – Joint Research Centre on Transnational Crime,
Universita
`Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, Milan, Italy
Abstract
Purpose – The paper aims at expanding knowledge on the presence of organized criminal groups in
public contract procurement in the south of Italy. It seeks to highlight how the capabilities of law
enforcement agencies could be enhanced by means of criminological models.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper sets out a criminological model with which to assess
the general and specific risks of the infiltration of public procurement in the south of Italy by organized
crime (OC).
Findings – According to the geographical risk assessment, infiltration by OC of public procureme nt
seems to be widespread in some areas of south Italy, especially Sicily, Calabria and Campania. On the
other hand, the specific risk may increase according to certain features of the company and its
representatives, the value of the contract, the low specialization of the activities required by the public
contract.
Originality/value – The paper describes a criminological model with which to assess the general
and specific risk of infiltration by OC of public procurement in south Italy.
Keywords Italy, Public procurement, Crimes, Criminology
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Since the early 1990s, money laundering has become a major issue for nat ional
authorities and financial institutions. At international level, many interventions have
been undertaken during the past 15 years in order to control and reduce the amount of
criminal proceeds laundered through banks and financial institutions (Savona, 1997).
Today, the result is still unclear. Some authors (Gill and Taylor, 2004) have remarked on
the imbalance between the (weak) proven effectiveness of the preventive measures
adopted and their economic impact on businesses. The debate about the real impact of
preventive measure seems far from concluded, but it now risks becoming po intless. In
the meantime, in fact, money-laundering techniques have evolved, embracing other
legitimate activities not protected by any anti-money laundering regulation.
Experiences in Italy, Russia and in many other countries show that, especially during
the past 20 years, serious organized crime (OC) has developed along a continuum that
goes from criminal activities to infiltration in legitimate ones (Williams and Godson,
2002). The criminal proceeds are immediately reinvested in the economic system in order
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Not only banks
151
Journal of Money Laundering Control
Vol. 12 No. 2, 2009
pp. 151-172
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1368-5201
DOI 10.1108/13685200910951910
to control legitimate activities which can launder money one step before it enters the
financial system, thus thwarting all efforts made to enforce controls on crimin al
proceeds. This evidence has induced law enforcement agencies and policy-makers to
develop new tools with which to detect when legitimate business is being polluted by OC
(Albanese, 2002). The paper presents a model developed to explore a specific form of OC
activity in legitimate business: the infiltration of public contracts. In particular, the
paper focuses on the public contract sector in South Italy, which is highly susceptible to
infiltration by local organized criminal groups. It presents a criminological risk
assessment model, whose purpose is to plot the risk of OC infiltration in public
procurement in South Italy along two dimensions: a macro-level assessment
(the geographical areas most at risk) and a micro-level assessment (the single public
contracts most at risk). This model derives from the Implementazione Analisi Criminale
project, an in-depth study awarded to Transcrime by the Italian Ministry of the Interior.
It was undertaken in South Italy at regional and local level and comprised an extensive
collection of primary and secondary sources, including the existing literature (both
national and international) on the topic. Particularly, focus groups were organized with
regional and local authorities in order to evaluate the volume, impact and risk factors
linked to infiltration of public procurement in each relevant Southern province.
Moreover, interviews were conducted with national key informants, and case studies
were analysed, in order to extrapolate the main vulnerabilities of the Italian public
procurement sector, and the factors likely to increase the risk of infiltration by OC. The
paper’s sections focus on the following questions:
(1) What is infiltration of public procurement by OC?
(2) Why is public procurement a vulnerable sector in South Italy?
(3) How can a criminological risk oriented model be developed?
(4) What are the possible future directions for development of the model?
2. What is OC infiltration in public procurement?
The purpose of this paper, the term “OC” refers to mafia-type organizations. From this
perspective, OC possesses typical characteristics that distinguish it from mere “crimes
that are organized”. These characteristics are:
.Continuity. The group must have a stable structure (organization) which enables
it to commit an indefinite number of crimes.
.Violence or intimidation. The group must make extensive use of violence, threats
or intimidation to achieve its objectives.
.Entrepreneurial modus operandi and profit. The group’s objectives are profit and
power. The activities of the group, both legal and illegal, pursue these objectives
and are instrumental to their achievement.
.Immunity. The group shields its activities from investigation and prosecution by
means of corruption or other forms of influence exerted on law enforcement,
public administration, politics, and the media (Finckenauer, 2005, pp. 77-8).
In Italy, mafia-type organizations possess all the above-mentioned characteristics.
In particular, these groups have gained extensive control over areas of Southern Italy,
doing so through the systematic use of violence and intimidation, but also through
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