LATINA -- Police have arrested 16 people in this Lazio commune, including the ex-mayor Giovanni Di Giorgi, for crimes against public administration, police sources said Monday.

 Orders of pre-trial detention have been given out to 16 people in Latina -- eight in prison and eight under house arrest, for crimes against public administration in an investigation by the competent magistrate Mara Mattioli, Il Fatto Quotidiano reports.

 The investigation was born out of a parliamentary interrogation of the ex-Five Star Movement politician Giuseppe Vacciano, and involved local politicians -- in particular, representatives of the Fratelli d’Italia (FDI) nationalistic party -- as well as managers, businessmen and notaries.

 Amongst these is the FDI ex-mayor Giovanni Di Giorgi, and authorization has been asked to proceed to the Chamber, for the president of Latina Football and FDI MP Pasquale Maietta.

 Also involved are the ex-councillor Giuseppe Di Rubbo (Forza Italia politician), the ex-provincial advisor Silvano Spagnoli (manager of the local swimming pools) and the manager Ventura Monti.

 The FDI ex-councillor for the commune Vincenzo Malvaso instead ended up in a prison in Velletri due to another investigation linked to a building construction case, involving 30 other people investigated.

 According to the prosecutor, serious “irregularities in public administration” were verified and a system had been created whereby the “managerial division of the Latina commune abused rules in order to favour some businessmen.”

 One of the many cases cited at the heart of this investigation was that some managers of the commune tried to remove a part of the air conditioning from the public hospital and install it in the Latina Football stadium. Another case of favours for this company, related to the extension of the stadium, involved using over 1.2 million euros of taxpayers’ money.

 Other areas of investigation are into construction -- in particular, the construction of a swimming pool, with energy usage costs that add up to about 700,000 euros -- and into 154 contracts thought to total 2.4 million euros.

 The Carabinieri military police explained that it had been confirmed that “the managerial division of the commune, to satisfy the private interests of a few politicians involved in the management of sport structures, has advanced with a series of administrative procedures that violate internal regulations and the basic rules that determine the smooth functioning of public administration.”

 nkd