… and new defendant works in same department targeted in April
The Bank of Portugal is among a number of institutions targeted by PJ police today in one of the largest operations of the year to combat corruption and fraud in obtaining European funds.
In this case, it is PRR funds – the money from the Plan for Recovery and Resilience that the country was assured would be ‘so well scrutinised there would be no scope for corruption’.
That assurance is looking sadly lame today: for the first time, the European Prosecutor’s Office has taken part in searches in Portugal. This is ‘a big deal’, suggest reports.
Initially, the story was that the Universities of Porto and Coimbra, as well as INEM were being searched.
This has since moved along to include the country’s central bank, the General Secretariat of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Casa da Música, Águas de Douro e Paiva, the Ports Administration of the Douro, Leixões and Viana do Castelo, ISCTE and Brisa.
According to Expresso, more than 300 inspectors are searching 50 locations as part of Operation Nexus – an investigation into corruption in the purchase of €20 million-worth of computer equipment.
The scheme involved “pretending that there was healthy/ fair competition in public contracts for the purchase of IT equipment. One company, DecUnify, is alleged to have rigged the public procurement format in which institutions are required to consult the market in advance and choose the best of three proposals”, says the paper.
Suspicions of corruption also focus on the sector’s relationship with public institutions, and in the skewing of public procurement rules for the acquisition of computer systems from certain companies “in exchange for bribes”.
CNN Portugal has also alluded to private companies having accessed PRR funds by simulating the purchase of computer systems for certain amounts, which were “artificially inflated with the complicity of the companies selling the services”.
This also raises suspicions of document forgery offences, money laundering and qualified tax fraud, says the media outlet.
The industrial centres that sell the software and hardware services are located in Greater Lisbon and, according to CNN, these were also raided today by the PJ.
As Expresso recalls, this is the second time in the space of three months that the Banco de Portugal has been searched by the PJ.
At the beginning of April, Operation Pactum named 43 defendants in connection with €17 million in purchases of IT equipment.
The Bank of Portugal identified €1.7 million in purchases made since 2021 from DecUnify.
The person now suspected of bending the rules in favour of DecUnify’ is an employee of the same Information Systems and Technologies department whose director, Carlos Moura, was made a defendant in April.
He and five others arrested today will be brought before magistrates in Porto for initial questioning. followed by a decision on bail.
A statement by the PJ details the various departments involved in today’s operation: ‘Northern, Central and Lisbon/ Vale do Tejo Directorates, the National Unit for Combating Corruption, the National Unit for Combating Cybercrime, the National Counterterrorism Unit and the National Unit for Combating Drug Trafficking, the Vila Real, Braga, Aveiro and Évora Departments, as well as computer experts, financial experts and security guards from Judicial Police structures’.
Nexus also included “elements of the PJ’s GRA – Norte, which executed seizures worth €4.6 million”.
sources: CNN Portugal/ Expresso/ ZAP/ Polícia Judiciária
