Senate passes anti-corruption bill

(supersedes previous)(ANSA) - Rome, April 1 - The government's long-awaited anti-corruption bill won definitive approval in the Upper House on Wednesday.
    The bill passed with 165 in favor, 74 nays, and 13 abstaining. It now goes to the Lower House for review.
    The biggest novelty is that it reintroduces corporate accounting fraud as a full-blown crime after a past government of billionaire media mogul Silvio Berlusconi reduced it to a non-felony offence with significantly lighter penalties. Under the new bill, cooking the books is now punishable with 1-5 years in prison if the crime occurred at a non-listed company and 3-8 years for publicly traded companies. The measure passed via a secret ballot and a very thin majority of three votes, which Justice Minister Andrea Orlando said is to be expected. "It's no secret that this is a delicate issue," he told Senate reporters.
    As far as defrauding public entities, the bill calls for the possibility of a plea bargain only in cases in which the defendant gives back the entire sum of his or her ill-gotten gains. It also makes it mandatory for prosecutors trying such cases to report to the head of the National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC), and for officials found guilty of corruption to pay a fine equal to bribes received.
    The bill also stiffens the penalties for mafia association, with organized crime bosses and their minions facing up to 26 years in prison if convicted.
    The bill "cracks down on mafia crimes, (reinstates the crime of) false accounting, and stiffens penalties for civil-service corruption," Renzi said on Twitter.
    "Of course I'm satisfied as victory was not a given," Orlando said. "My only regret is the vote on such an important issue was not unanimous". There is no time for resting on laurels as the fight against corruption must go on, he said.