Corruption in MIUR procurement: Court of Auditors convicts businessman and former official

The Court of Auditors of Lazio has ordered the businessman Federico Bianchi di Castelbianco and the former head of department at the Ministry, Giovanna Boda, to pay compensation to the Ministry of Education and Merit as part of proceedings relating to corruption in ministerial procurement contracts. In their judgement, the audit judges state that “from the substantial body of evidence filed in the case, the Court notes that the irregular and fraudulent methods by which Boda and Bianchi di Castelbianco prepared individual educational projects – to be funded by ministerial grants – with the aim of subsequently awarding them to the defendant companies, as well as the artificial reporting of expenditure, intended to procure direct or indirect benefits for Boda and, in any case, not relating to the implementation of what had been agreed”.

The allegations relate to “facilitating the allocation of public funds by the educational institutions involved to companies and/or organisations linked” to the businessman and, “subsequently, allocating part of the grants received to secure direct or indirect benefits for Boda, through false reporting of the expenses incurred for the projects”.

The Court ordered Bianchi di Castelbianco to pay the Ministry of Education and Merit the sum of 804,187 euros, “jointly and severally with Giovanna Boda, limited to the sum of 312,477 euros”. The judges also ordered the Institute of Orthophonology and Com.E – Comunicazione & Editoria s.r.l. to pay the Ministry “the same amount of damages, jointly and severally with Federico Bianchi di Castelbianco and Giovanna Boda, limited to the sum of €381,818 for the Institute of Orthophonology and €19,428”.