MILAN (AP) — Premier Matteo Renzi gave his top anti-corruption official enhanced powers Friday aimed at preventing scandals like the one that forced the resignation earlier in the day of Venice’s mayor.

Mayor Giorgio Orsoni resigned under pressure for his role in a sweeping bribery scandal tainting a major public works project to protect Venice from flooding — just one of a series of corruption scandals in recent weeks that have drawn comparisons with Italy’s “Clean Hands” investigations of the 1990s.