Searches under ‘Operation Pactum’ culminate with 43 ‘official suspects’
Justice minister Rita Júdice, initially taken by surprise by the PJ swoop on public entities yesterday, has since said that she will be expecting the immediate resignations of any employees or managers cited as ‘official suspects’ in Operation Pactum – an investigation into corrupt schemes involving the acquisition of IT services that have allegedly ‘damaged the state’ to the tune of €17 million.
This far, PJ police and the Attorney General’s Office, have announced that they have constituted 43 official suspects (‘arguidos’): 31 of them individuals, 12 being legal entities.
The statement released does not specify how many (if any) are connected to the public sector.
The searches however included a number of public entities, including the Bank of Portugal, the Institute of Registries and Notaries (IRN), the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Justice and BUPi – Balcão Único do Prédio.
Today, Expresso adds that Operation Pactum has the support of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office EPPO.
At issue are suspicions of economic participation in business, abuse of power, active and passive corruption, fraud in obtaining subsidies and money laundering, among other crimes, that stretch back to 2017.
source material: Lusa/ Expresso/ Observador
