Campania businessman Alfredo Romeo,
who was arrested last week in relation to alleged corruption
involving civil-service procurement agency CONSIP, says that he
has never met ex-premier Matteo Renzi's father Tiziano, his
lawyers said on Monday.
"Our client says that he never gave money to anyone and that
he never met Tiziano Renzi or people linked to the entourage of
the ex-premier," said lawyers Francesco Carotenuto, Giovanni
Battista Vignola and Alfredo Sorge before Romeo was set for
questioning at Rome's Regina Coeli jail.
Tiziano Renzi is under investigation in the probe as is
Sports Minister Luca Lotti.
The case has rocked the ruling Democratic Party (PD), which
is gearing up for a congress and primaries in which Matteo Renzi
is standing to be re-elected leader of the centre-left group.
Romeo exercised the right to remain silent during questioning
with a preliminary investigations judge on Monday, sources said.
Romeo's lawyers have handed over a statement giving details
of the defence case, sources said.
One of Romeo's lawyers said that, rather than being at the
centre of alleged graft involving CONSIP, he was actually
hard-done-to in contracts for civil-service procurement agency.
"Alfredo Romeo was not privileged with CONSIP, he was
marginalised," said lawyer Giovanni Battista Vignola.
"Forget about him being a corruptor. He was cheated many
times.
"In April Alfredo Romeo presented a complaint to CONSIP in
which his relations and the mechanism via which the tenders were
awarded were described. He was damaged by it".
Battista Vignola said that Italy's anti-trust and
anti-corruption agencies were informed of this complain when it
was filed.
He said it was forward to Naples prosecutors three months ago
and to Rome investigators three weeks ago.
Raffaele Cantone, the head of anti-corruption authority ANAC,
said Monday that it was important that CONSIP is not tainted by
graft.
"I consider CONSIP to be an indispensable tool for the
country's public tender policies," he said.
"Precisely because of that it is necessary to do everything
to keep it far from scandals.
"We at the anti-corruption authority have formed an idea
(about the case) and we believe that certain contract allotments
should be constructed in a certain way to avoid certain types of
problem".
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Copyright ANSA
