Italy government website jammed after posting ministers' earnings

Rome (dpa) - The website of Italy‘s government crashed Tuesday after too many people tried to access it to view the earnings of cabinet ministers posted online as part of transparency drive by Prime Minister Mario Monti.

Monti wants his government to dispel the perception that cabinet ministers and public officials remain a privileged "caste" following the introduction of austerity measures and higher taxes.

A few hours after some of the ministers‘ earnings were posted online Tuesday, the site www.governo.it became inaccessible due to an overload of access requests.

According to initial information posted on the site, the highest earner in the cabinet is Economic Development, Transport and Infrastructure Minister Corrado Passera, a former top banker who last year declared for tax purposes an income of around 3.5 million euros (7.2 million dollars).

Passera, who in November resigned as managing director of one of Italy‘s largest banks, Intesa Sanpaolo, will receive as a government minister an annual salary of 220,000 euros, according to the site.

A former European Union commissioner, Monti was appointed in November as head of an unelected technocratic government tasked with staving off a default by Italy on its public debt repayments. dpa pwm npr Author: Peter Mayer