ITALY Law and Practice Contributed by: Alessandro Pistochini, Davide Giorgiadi, Giulia Barattini and Carlotta Scozia, Pistochini Avvocati Studio Legale
corruption offences) is perpetrated in the interest of – or to the advantage of – a company. All such provisions are enforced by the criminal court (following an initiative put in place by the prosecutor), which has a duty to assess individu - al and corporate liabilities and deliver judgments of acquittal or conviction. However, Law No 190/2012 established ANAC, an administrative authority aiming to prevent corruption in public administrations. ANAC has a broad range of powers – provided for in the new Public Procurement Code (Legislative Decree No 36/2023) – including the following: • analysis of the factors that facilitate corrup - tion to identify prevention initiatives (for this purpose, ANAC issued the three-year Nation - al Anti-Corruption Plan for the prevention of corruption and transparency, which assesses the risk of corruption related to the office and points out potential initiatives to be carried out to mitigate the risk); • inspections through requesting information, acts and documents, and the execution of the initiatives required by the National Anti- Corruption Plan; • supervision of public contracts and public tenders; • reporting to the Public Prosecutor’s Office in the event of crimes or to the Court of Audi - tors in the event of crimes detrimental to the Treasury; • regulation by issuing guidelines (also having a binding value); • management of a national database of public contracts, digital records of public contracts and a national register of Evaluation Commis - sion members; • the imposition of disqualifying and pecuniary sanctions in the event of a failure, without jus -
tification, to provide the information request - ed by ANAC or contracting authorities, or in the event of the provision of false information or documents; and • having a key role in the new whistle-blowing rules (Legislative Decree No 24/2023), being responsible, inter alia, for (i) receiving and fol - lowing up whistle-blowing reports (so-called “external reporting”), as well as assessing the accuracy of the allegations made and, where relevant, addressing the reported breach; and (ii) imposing sanctions against those who breach the provisions of Legislative Decree No 24/2023, ensuring a high level of pro - tection of persons who report violations of domestic and EU law. Concerning ANAC’s sanctioning powers, with Resolution No 380/2024, dated 30 July 2024, ANAC declared that the measures taken by a general director of an agency in the agricultural sector against a manager who had reported irregularities were retaliatory in nature. Conse - quently, those measures were revoked, and the director was fined EUR10,000. On 1 June 2021, EPPO began undertaking its investigatory and prosecutorial tasks. EPPO is an independent and decentralised prosecution office of the EU with the competence to inves - tigate, prosecute and bring to judgment crimes against the EU budget, such as fraud and cor - ruption. Pursuant to EU Regulation No 2017/1939 and the PIF Directive, which sets forth the minimum provisions that must be adopted and transposed into national law by the participating member states, EPPO is empowered to investigate and prosecute some offences against EU financial interests (eg, fraud relating to EU expenditures and revenues, passive and active corruption
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