Subcontracting and the risk of a privileged route for mafia enterprises

Abstract

This contribution examines the macro-socioeconomic factors that facilitate the presence of economic operators tainted by elements of mafia infiltration within the market, with particular emphasis on the public procurement sector. The complexity of the issue emerges, on the one hand, from the need to strike a balance between ensuring the broadest possible participation in public contracts—by means of organizational frameworks that can extend access to tenders even to entities lacking the standard participation requirements—and, on the other, from the necessity to prevent such mechanisms from being exploited to circumvent the controls entrusted to the contracting authority, both during the tender phase (to verify compliance with the requirements set out in Articles 94 et seq. of Legislative Decree No. 36/2023) and throughout the execution of the contract.