Rome's city council could be put under compulsory administration amid a widening anti-mafia probe that has targeted over 120 suspects and led to the arrests of 80 people including politicians, officials and businessmen.
"By the end of this week, the Prefect of Rome will propose to the interior ministry measures to be taken against the city council," said a statement from the office of the Prefect, the government's top representative in the capital.
Suspects in the anti-mafia investigation include current and former politicians of various stripes. They are accused of crimes including alleged mafia connections, graft, embezzlement, bid rigging, false invoicing, fraud and ties to a powerful Italian mobster.
Rome's former conservative mayor Gianni Alemanno was among top Rome politicians implicated in the probe which investigated public tenders for projects including migrant camps, waste management and parks maintenance.
Among those arrested in the investigation was Lazio regional councillor, Luca Gramazio, from ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi's centre-right Forza Italia party, who is accused of acting as a go-between for corrupt businessmen and the criminal underworld.
The city's current centre-left mayor, Ignazio Marino, is not accused of wrongdoing in the probe.
Marino has rejected repeated calls for his resignation, and enrolled the help of Italy's anti-graft czar to clean up his administration, but as the so-called 'Mafia Capital' scandal deepens, his position looks increasingly untenable, observers said.
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