FIVE THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY

Sicily’s coronavirus emergency co-ordinator was arrested along with nine other people on Thursday on suspicion of corruption and rigging of health sector tenders while in his previous role, the prosecutor and the provincial command of the Guardia di Finanzia of Palermo said. Here are some details:

1 I’M WITH THE BAND

Antonino Candela was allegedly part of a “power base

made up of businessmen and corrupt public officials” the police statement said, referring to activity before he

became head of the Italian island’s coronavirus response

unit.

2 DOUBLY ISOLATING

He was among those responsible for helping to rig public tenders for medical equipment and services worth some 600 million euros (US$660 million) since 2016, in return for promised bribes of around 1.8 million euros (US$2 million) in several tranches from compatriots Giuseppe Taibbi and Fabio Damiani, who managed some of those contracts, the police allege. Candela is

under house arrest.

3 ’TWAS ALWAYS THUS?

Candela was director of a provincial health authority in the Sicilian capital of Palermo, which issued the tenders along with a regional agency. “This is an absolutely alarming and disheartening picture of the level of illegality in the Sicilian health system, where systemic corruption has allowed very large illicit profits,” the magistrates’ arrest warrant said.

4 WIDESPREAD WORM

The police also seized seven

companies based in Sicily and in the northern region of Lombardy, as well as some 160,000 euros (US$175,000)

in bribes allegedly already paid. Total bribes were calculated to be about five per cent

of a deal’s value.

5 DO NO HARM

Italy has suffered one of the world’s worst outbreaks of the coronavirus, with more than 32,000 deaths, but Sicily

has escaped relatively unscathed along with other

southern regions. “Those who steal public money, if the allegations are confirmed, do not deserve the esteem of so many honest people. Everyone must know that health care is not a business,” Sicily’s regional president Nello Musumeci wrote on

Facebook.