Sick of It All

By JOHN MOODY ROME

Rome finally fell to the barbarians because of its decadence. Modern Italians are learning that history can repeat itself. Their proud and prosperous country is in decline and free fall because of some nasty vices familiar to the Caesars: greed, complacency and a betrayal of trust by those on whom it was conferred. Last year the ignominious ouster of the lira from Europe's exchange-rate mechanism told Italians that their economy was not as resilient as they once thought. Then they were forced to confront the power of the Mafia. And for 18 agonizing months they have been discovering that the crooks are not confined to the Cosa Nostra but reach right into the country's political establishment.

The corruption investigation into kickbacks to political parties in return for public-works contracts has uncovered what now seems to be the largest public-corruption scandal in modern European history. Operation Clean Hands, run by five judicial prosecutors from a warren of fusty offices in Milan, has swept through Italy's corridors of power like a sirocco. Once confined to Milan, Clean Hands has now reached 21 cities. More than 800 people have been arrested and an additional 1,000 are thought to be under investigation.

The probe has claimed a number of prominent victims. Last week Giorgio La Malfa, leader of the small but influential Republican Party that bills itself as "the party of honest people," resigned after being notified he was under criminal investigation. Earlier, the chief financial officer for Fiat, Italy's largest private employer, was arrested along with another top executive. Both maintain their innocence. Ex-Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, who has received eight notifications that he is suspected of corruption offenses, was forced out last month as head of the Italian Socialist Party. Rome, Milan and Naples are without mayors because of the scandal. Three Cabinet Ministers tainted by association have stepped down. Prime Minister Giuliano Amato was reduced last week to arguing that just being under criminal investigation should not oblige a public official to quit. Amato won a lukewarm vote of confidence from Parliament last Thursday, but the scandal may yet consume his eight-month-old government.

Investigators are now zeroing in on the state monopolies for highway construction, petrochemicals, television broadcasting, public transit, water and electricity, where large budgets are tempting targets for graft. Though no one has precise numbers, one study puts the rip-off at $11 billion a year over the past dozen years, a figure coincidentally comparable to Italy's annual public deficit.

Clean Hands began in 1991, and got a break a year ago, when Luca Magni, owner of a cleaning company, got tired of paying tangenti, or kickbacks, for the contract to service a public nursing home. He led prosecutors to the facility's administrator, Mario Chiesa, a Socialist Party activist and Craxi associate. The police moved in, Chiesa squealed and the political house of cards began to collapse. Admits Clean Hands chief prosecutor Francesco Saverio Borrelli: "We had no idea when we started how deep this would go."

At first, party bigwigs tried to brazen it out. But as the evidence of graft among the major parties multiplied, so did public outrage. Shortly before resigning, Craxi was accosted by an angry mob outside his party headquarters. Damning testimony from several key figures, and the likelihood that members of Parliament will be stripped of their immunity from criminal prosecution, sent party higher-ups into a frenzy. Says sociologist Franco Ferrarotti of the University of Rome: "These people always operated on the concept that public funds belong to the person who grabs them first. Whatever they steal is theirs. There has never been a concept of public service."

With traditional parties like the Socialists and Christian Democrats discredited, voters are seeking alternatives. The big winner has been the Northern League, the populist movement that has ranted against official corruption for years. Founder Umberto Bossi once wanted to partition Italy into two or three separate states. Now that his party is Italy's third most powerful, he calls instead for greater regional autonomy.

Another beneficiary of the scandal is Mario Segni, 53, a renegade Christian Democrat who wants a referendum on election reform. Says Segni: "Italy has lived through a horrible phase of corruption. The only good sign is that people are finally fed up." Adds Leoluca Orlando, 45, leader of the reformist La Rete party: "The old boys have had their chance. Now they must move aside and let us clean up."

The stain of corruption has spread so wide that Clean Hands prosecutors cannot keep up with it. Former Christian Democrat leader Arnaldo Forlani last week compared the endless arrests to "the barbarization of the system that leaves nothing and no one." In this case though, it is the barbarians inside the gates who have to be feared.