Govt dismisses ANAC alarm over Genoa

(ANSA) - Rome, October 10 - Sources at Premier Giuseppe Conte's office said Wednesday that the government was certain the construction of the Genoa viaduct that will replace the Morandi bridge will fully comply with the law. Earlier on Wednesday Raffaele Cantone, the head of anti-corruption agency ANAC, expressed doubts about the government's decree for the reconstruction and said there was a risk of mafia-infiltration in the work. The premier's office said the waiver of regulations to speed up the reconstruction process regarded bureaucratic procedures and not criminal matters. Cantone said that the commissioner tasked with overseeing the construction of a new viaduct to replace the Morandi bridge, which collapsed in August in a disaster in which 43 people died, was assigned "unprecedented" powers. He also warned of the risk of possible mafia infiltration in the reconstruction work. "The waiver of all extra-criminal regulations also entails the waiver of the antimafia code," Cantone told a Lower House hearing, adding that the decree had "shortcomings". "I don't think it is necessary to stress the intrinsic risks in this omission, above all because there are many activities linked to the reconstruction, from the movement of earth to the disposal of refuse, in which mafia companies, unfortunately, have undoubted know-how".