Italy public works minister resigns

Rome, March 20, (dpa/GNA) - Italy's minister for public works said Thursday he was going to resign after being linked to a corruption scandal that was an embarrassment to Prime Minister Matteo Renzi's government.

"Tomorrow [...] I will hand in my resignation," Infrastructure and Transport Minister Maurizio Lupi said in a pre-recorded appearance on a late-night political show on RAI state TV due to be broadcast later in the day.

The minister said he would formalize his decision after a Friday appearance before parliament, which had been scheduled to give him a chance to explain his conduct, amid calls from opposition parties for his resignation.

Lupi had been under fire since Monday, when prosecutors in Florence placed under investigation more than 50 people, and arrested Ercole Incalza, a retired top bureaucrat from Lupi's ministry, and businessman Stefano Perotti.

Incalza is accused of steering several lucrative public works projects - including the building of Italy's pavilion at Milan's EXPO 2015 fair - in the hands of Perotti, in return for hefty bribes.

Lupi has not been charged with any crime, but investigators found that Incalza and Perotti offered his newly-graduated son a job, and Perotti gifted him with a 10,000-euro (10,600-dollar) Rolex watch.

The scandal, the latest in a long line of Italian graft cases, erupted three days after Prime Minister Renzi visited the construction site of EXPO 2015 and claimed that corruption had been banished from the project.

The Milan fair is due to open on May 1, but preparations for the event have been severely delayed by bureaucratic wranglings and judicial investigations into alleged widespread bribery linked to construction tenders.

GNA