The Public Prosecutor’s Office is today carrying out searches at the facilities of ANEPC, the National Emergency and Civil Protection Authority, in an investigation into “public procurement procedures for the supply of personal protective equipment for fighting forest fires”.
Operation Obsequium, led by DCIAP (the Central Department of Investigation and Criminal Action), is executing “six home search warrants and four search warrants at business and public entity facilities, namely at ANEPC facilities”, said the Public Prosecutor’s Office in a statement.
Searches are also being carried out at companies and commercial entities in the textile and personal protective equipment sector, at the homes of managers and accountants of the entities involved, and at accounting offices and specialised suppliers.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, crimes at stake are active and passive corruption and economic participation in business, “as there is evidence of illegal favoritism of a competitor in procedures carried out between 2015 and 2023, to the detriment of the Portuguese State.”
Further suspicions, in other words, of the kind of cronyism that is frequently called out in public administration.
Operation Obsequium, in which the GNR Criminal Investigation Directorate collaborates with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, involves 48 GNR agents and five magistrates from DCIAP. It is subject to judicial secrecy – and its name alludes to “dutiful obedience”.
ANEPC, meantime, has confirmed that searches have been carried out at its facilities in Carnaxide, saying in a statement that it is “collaborating with the authorities” and completely available to “provide the necessary support within the scope of the ongoing investigations”.
Source material: LUSA
