Speaker at ICS Rome, Davide Del Monte, the director of Transparency International Italy, has enriched the debate on heritage and storytelling reflecting on a particular historical and cultural legacy, coming from the ancient past, living in present and related to the fight against corruption and the theme of transparency.

“The first major corruption scandal - reminds Del Monte - takes place in 70 BC as Cicero told us. Even then, as it is clear from the writings, he felt that the state should give an example to citizens in order to keep alive public affairs without mortifying them. After several centuries, also Montesquieu identifies corruption as the cause of the collapse of the Roman Empire.”

Therefore people has always spoken about Transparency, and it is even more important to do it today because, “In the CPI (Corruption Perception Index) - explains Del Monte - Italy has been for years at the bottom of the European ranking and according to the Global Corruption Barometer, 69 % of Italians believe that public decisions are taken by an elite group to pursue personal interests above all.”

However, in Del Monte’s opinion, transparency not only is/means accessibility but also civic-mindedness: “Beyond the right to access PA’s information, that is the reason why we’ve supported the Freedom of Information Act from the beginning, citizens must be able to know how and when to do it. Otherwise - warned the director of TI-It - we will have an “open” government, but no one will really get into it.”