Italy - A Warning on Corruption - NYTimes.com Italy lacks effective safeguards against corruption, the global anticorruption organization Transparency International said Friday. Lorenzo Segato, director of the Research Center on Security and Crime, which carried out the study for Transparency International, said Italy fell short on many counts, with questionable institutional integrity, weak regulations, biased news media and a social code that condones certain illegalities. Officials say corruption costs Italy about $80 billion a year. The organization called for Italy to set up an independent anticorruption agency.