Ministry of the Interior Financial monitoring: «CAPACI Project» Presentation by the Prefect Bruno Frattasi* *Chairman of the Coordination Committee for the High Supervision of the Major Public Works 1
Coordination Committee for the High Supervision of the Major Public Works set up by Ministerial Decree of March 14, 2003 at the MINISTRY OF THE INTERIOR 2
Last September, the Directorate-General (DG) Home Affairs of the European Commission authorized the start of the C.A.P.A.C.I. project CREATION OF AUTOMATED PROCEDURES AGAINST CRIMINAL INFILTRATION IN PUBLIC CONTRACTS concerning the experimental programme for the financial monitoring of some major public works. 3
Origin of the Project name Giovanni Falcone was a lead Italian magistrate involved in the fight against mafia. His success derived partly from the painstaking examination of thousands of bank records. He was assassinated at Capaci, near Palermo, in 1992. 4
What is CAPACI? It is a project pursuing an improved protection of the market of public contracts by enhancing transparency and exploiting the informative potential of financial flows recorded on bank accounts of all businesses (general contractor, subcontractors, suppliers) involved in the implementation of public works, in order to: acquire an increased knowledge of the use of public resources; provide support to investigations aimed at preventing criminal infiltration in public contracts. 5
How does it work? It builds on a previous experimentation of a financial monitoring system (2009-2011), of which it constitutes an improvement getting financial support by the European Commission. Among the outputs of the system: a database with information on individual transactions and payment status reports; a system of alerts/warnings that will report unusual behaviour; dissemination to other EU countries. 6
Mafia and Major Public Works: WHY? Opportunity for criminal organizations to invest in these business sectors significant amounts of money to be laundered, taking advantage of the financial difficulties of competitors, or to get public funding. 7
The method of experimental monitoring Actors of monitoring The following actors take part in the experimentation approved by the Interministerial Committee for Economic Planning (C.I.P.E.): Monitoring concerns the whole chain of the actors participating in the implementation of the infrastructure and, therefore, all the beneficiaries of payments from the funds allocated for the realization of the work. 8
The method of experimental monitoring Monitoring instruments Opening and use of dedicated bank accounts; Payments made by means of on-line transfers, in conformity with SEPA (European Payment System) standard, indicating the single identifying code (CUP) for the specific public project. 9
Pattern of financial monitoring Financial flows relating to public works CBI monitoring solution Public Authority Monitoring 10 10
Advantages envisaged by the Project It allows the immediate availability of financial information on single transactions and a complete picture of the chain; It is not necessary for the investigator to have access to the Banks, but the Banks themselves make available the data that is automatically aggregated and represented according to pre-established procedures (for example, considering operations exceeding certain amounts, financial markets, categories of recipients); These results are achieved without particular burdens for business operators, by resorting to existing assets (financial instruments and information networks); 11
Advantages envisaged by the Project The Project uses SEPA credit transfers a financial instrument which will become mandatory as from February 1, 2014 containing more useful information compared to other tools; The system is able to detect possible abnormalities in financial flows and to report these to Investigation Agencies, generating specific «alerts»; The system allows to monitor the financial process of the public work and to understand if there is a waste of resources. Therefore, the system is also useful to satisfy the need for public investment monitoring. 12
Extent of CAPACI Project Id Title Status MoU Section of A Rome Ongoing Undergroun dcannitello Ongoing B railway switch Pompei Being C Major Starting signed Project Signed (Jun. 2009) Signed (Aug. 2011) A C B 13
Advantages for other countries Promotion of co-operation and strenghtening of networks Improvement of ability to monitor criminal infiltration in public works contracts Facilitation of trans-national participation in tenders, thanks to higher levels of transparency 14
Dissemination The Project envisaged: Survey in three EU Countries Training in two EU Countries Testing of the monitoring system in one EU Country On April 5, 2012 the System was illustrated to the German Bank Association We are open to meet the interest expressed by the other EU Countries willing to know the System and verify its feasibility within their territory 15
CAPACI project objectives The overall objective of developing an effective tool for fighting organised crime infiltration into public works contracts, both in Italy and in other EU Countries will be achieved by: developing an automatic alert system to signal suspect financial transactions; analysing the compatibility of the system with norms, procedures and strategies in other MS; presenting the benefits of the system to the other countries of the EU, and providing training in selected countries, testing the system on two major projects in Italy, and on other projects in selected EU countries; providing a set of guidelines to the EC and to other interested countries; providing an overview of the feasibility of extending the system to other parts of the EU. 16
Which added value Development of innovative methods and technologies High potential for transferability Applicable to different countries: those ready to apply this tool with a minimum preparation those most in need of effective monitoring instruments in this field Survey of practices and norms encourages greater harmonization in this area Full benefit for other countries thanks to on on-the-job collaboration and practical experimentation 17
Thanks for your attention Ministry of the Interior Bruno FRATTASI bruno.frattasi@interno.it +39 06 46537339 18