The National Anti-Corruption Authority (ANAC)

Italy is often used as a point of reference for having created a real “system” with which to fight corruption within the country’s public administration. Overseeing the entire anti-corruption system in Italy, a public authority, namely ANAC (the National Anti-Corruption Authority), stands as a guarantor. It is the organizational center of the system as the public authority that is entrusted with the task of preventing corruption. ANAC falls under the category of independent authorities, which is an organizational model that has been developing in Italy since the 1990s’. ANAC’s institutional mission has gradually extended and enlarged. Assuming that corruption is a phenomenon that affects not only the values of ethics and justice but also regular market trends, the legislature entrusted ANAC with the task of preventing and fighting corruption and regulating and supervising the market of public contracts. In order to carry out its mission, ANAC holds a wide range of powers: it regulates, supervises, judges, and punishes. In light of ANAC’s numerous and strong powers, a crucial problem arises, which is that of its accountability.