But what competition, as a free market!? “All large and medium-sized contracts are rigged”. E’ the operation “Great Cut”, a mega investigation into public works which yesterday morning carried out a myriad of searches throughout Italy to explain how a billion euros of works are divided between companies.

“It's more serious… that there are no mafia infiltrations", the commander responds in the press conference Financial Police of Friuli Venezia Giulia Giuseppe Bottillo to the question of Tele Antenna journalist Andrea Sessa, on the possible presence "in the network" of organized crime. Bottillo: “We must stop thinking that in Italy only if there is mafia infiltration is the matter serious. Who, of mafia infiltration, at the moment we are not aware of the investigations, which does not mean that this was not a closed system of division of contracts. E so there is no need for the Camorra to arrive, the 'ndrangheta is the mafia, etc.. Because obviously what exists is enough. It is a closed system of companies that agree among themselves to divide up hundreds of contracts".
 
Friuli is shaking, the Veneto reaching up to Bologna and patchily also to the south. The sources and evidence from which the investigators started are still very secret. But the activity conducted by the Financial Police and the Public Prosecutor's Office of Gorizia hypothesizes a real such a strong and efficient partition system to exclude the presence of organized crime. For now there is no talk of the involvement of prominent political figures, even if it seems difficult that "politics" is not involved and aware of the consolidated practice.
 
Yesterday morning from Gdf he committed 400 military to carry out searches, seizures, acquisitions of documents from Friuli to Veneto, but also in Trentino Alto Adige, Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia Romagna, Tuscany, Lazio, Campania, Puglia, Sicily and Sardinia. I am 220 the people touched e 120 finite societies under observation, including public bodies and municipalities.
 
All rigged the works of road maintenance and construction, highways, bridges, viaducts, overpass, underpasses, galleries, airport runways, building, river and hydraulic works, aqueducts, gas pipelines, maritime and dredging works, environmental reclamation and protection systems.
 
Among the controlled companies, the yellow flames searched the offices of: Motorways for Italy, Anas, Veneto streets, Autovie Venete, Commissioner for the mobility emergency in A4, Fvg Roads, Venetian motorway concessions, Commissioner for the traffic emergency in Treviso and Vicenza. And then the companies that manage the Fvg airports, Treviso (Aer three spa), Venezia (Save), Verona (Catullo Airport), the Fvg Region and the companies responsible for the Ports and Monfalcone (Consortium for the economic development of Monfalcone).
 
Deeds and documents concern the following contracting authorities:
Delegate Commissioner for the mobility emergency regarding the A4 (Venice – Trieste section) and the Villesse – Gorizia connection;
Autovie Venete s.p.a., concessionaire of the motorway sections between the Mestre ring road and Sistiana, between Palmanova and Udine, between Portogruaro, Pordenone and Conegliano, between Villesse and Gorizia;
Autostrade per l'Italia s.p.a., concessionaire of numerous motorway sections including Venice / Belluno and Udine South / Tarvisio;
Friuli-Venezia Giulia Strade s.p.a., company that deals with the management and maintenance of the regional roads of Friuli Venezia Giulia;
Veneto Strade s.p.a., company that takes care of the maintenance of regional and provincial roads in Veneto;
Anas s.p.a., concessionaire of the national road network;
Veneto Motorway Concessions s.p.a., dealer of the Mestre bypass, of the Mestre ring road and the connection with the Marco Polo airport in Tessera; Delegate Commissioner for the Emergency arising in the traffic and mobility sector in the territory of the provinces of Treviso and Vicenza, owner of the creation of the Pedemontana Veneta;
Friuli-Venezia Giulia Airport s.p.a., company that manages the “Trieste Airport”;
Aer Tre s.p.a., company that manages the Treviso “Canova” airport;
Save s.p.a., company that manages the “Marco Polo” airport in Venice;
“Valerio Catullo” Airport of Verona Fillafranca s.p.a., company that manages the Verona airport;
“Guglielmo Marconi” Airport of Bologna s.p.a., company that manages the Bologna airport;
Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region, responsible among other things for construction works, expansion, renovation and maintenance of ports and maritime landing places, as well as for gravel concessions;
Port System Authority of the Eastern Adriatic Sea, company responsible for managing the Port of Trieste;
Consortium for the economic development of Monfalcone, competent among other things for the port of Monfalcone.

Among the crimes for which proceedings are being prosecuted we are talking about criminal association, auction rigging, breaches and fraud in public supplies, subcontracting in violation of the law and extortion. And while other hypotheses of crime are being examined, the involvement of public officials who did not exercise the necessary control actions and who could have prevented the development of the consolidated system is hypothesized.
 
What emerges from the preliminary findings are not only the dozens of bid rigging among the companies involved as a result of collusive practices, but also a dangerous phenomenon of fraud in the realization of the contracted works with processes carried out using sometimes non-certified materials, different from those declared and in smaller quantities than those requested and invoiced, resulting in serious violations, including environmental violations.
 
Further acquisitions concern other entities and municipalities located in the provinces of Gorizia, Udine, Trieste, Pordenone, of Veneto, of Lombardy, of Emilia-Romagna, of Liguria, of Tuscany, of Umbria, of the Marche, of Abruzzo, of Lazio, of Sicily and Sardinia.