Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has been shortlisted for a university position | Alex Wong/Getty Images Italian prime minister bends rules with job application Giuseppe Conte is due to sit an exam for the academic post on Monday.

ROME — Italy's Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte is shortlisted for a prestigious university professorship, apparently in breach of laws that forbid people in high public office from being considered for such posts, according to documents seen by POLITICO and eight people with knowledge of the recruitment process.

Conte, who was plucked from relative obscurity at the University of Florence to lead the nation in June, will sit an exam in legal English next Monday, competing against three other candidates. He first applied for the professorship in private law at Rome's Sapienza University in February, before he became prime minister at the head of a coalition between the populist 5Stars and the far-right League.

Legal scholars argue that being prime minister bars him from continuing with his application for the post, let alone being selected.

The timing is awkward for the prime minister, coming just days after his education undersecretary, Lorenzo Fioramonti, vowed to intensify an anti-corruption drive on appointments in higher education.

"Since my appointment, less than two months ago, I received over 30 notices of potentially rigged public competitive exams," Fioramonti, of the 5Stars, said in a Facebook post, adding that he wants to "defend and spread a culture of transparency and meritocracy in the Italian academic world."

When Conte was appointed prime minister in June he immediately took leave of absence from his academic post in Florence.

Sapienza's own governing rules, plus a national law on the conduct of public universities passed in 2010 and a statute dating back to 1980, together forbid applications to positions at publicly funded universities where a potential conflict of interest or other legal incompatibility (such as being related to the person retiring or holding certain public offices) exists. In this case, critics argue that the selection process cannot be impartial when one applicant holds power over the university by virtue of his public office.

POLITICO has seen application documents from Conte and two of the other candidates that were considered by the judging panel on August 1, as well as two pieces of correspondence with the university authorities discussing the application process. These show the prime minister applied in February — when the post became vacant following the retirement of Conte's mentor and longtime associate, Guido Alpa — and was still one of the candidates as of August 1.

According to people in the university with knowledge of the application, his CV and legal publications were evaluated by the judging panel again on September 4 alongside three other candidates. In an unusual move, Sapienza University's school of law has not published the results of that evaluation — which would name the candidates — on the competitive exam's page.

An Italian government official, who did not want to be named, confirmed the prime minister's application was still live and that he intended to sit the exam on Monday. A spokesperson for Sapienza University did not respond to a request for comment.

Raised eyebrows

When Conte was appointed prime minister in June he immediately took leave of absence from his academic post in Florence. According to two people familiar with the Sapienza appointment, if Conte gets the new job, he will take an unpaid leave of absence for the duration of his prime ministerial mandate and the position will be temporarily filled by an existing Sapienza professor.

Nevertheless, three legal scholars, who are not directly connected with the application process but who did not want to be identified because they feared criticizing the prime minister could hurt their careers, said this is the first time a sitting prime minister has gone ahead with such an application.

One scholar citied two similar precedents dating back to the late 1990s when former ministers Vincenzo Visco and Oliviero Diliberto were awarded professorships by Sapienza University while in office. "At the time, the news raised eyebrows but its wasn't illegal per se, but the law has since changed and now it quite clearly is," he said.

Another scholar said it was "highly unusual and disconcerting" that the members of the university's judging committee did not highlight any incompatibility or conflict of interest. "According to the Italian anti-corruption authority, judging committee members are subject to the law which requires them to abstain from assessing candidates when there are reasons that could compromise their impartiality and their serenity in the evaluation," he said.

"Anti-corruption laws also require all persons taking part in any administrative procedure — like a competitive exam for a professorship at a public university — to abstain in case of any proven or potential conflict of interest and to declare it to the competent authorities," said the third legal scholar.

The judging committee is made up of three professors: Enrico Elio del Prato, of Sapienza University; Stefano Delle Monache, who teaches private law at Padova University; and Giusella Dolores Finocchiaro, a professor at the University of Bologna. Two of the three legal scholars argue that the panel cannot impartially evaluate the prime minister's application "considering he is effectively their highest superior."

On August 1, when the three professors first convened, no incompatibility reasons or conflicts of interests were raised, according to the meeting's minutes.

According to the university's job vacancy announcement, published in January, the selection process would be based on the candidates' legal publications, their CVs and their knowledge of the English language.

Sapienza University's dean, Eugenio Gaudio, has the power to reject the appointment in case of procedural irregularities and can ask the judging panel to re-evaluate the candidates. Gaudio declined to comment.