Yet another weighty investigation has been launched into corruption in the public sector with police today raiding dozens of homes and offices of politicians, lawyers and businesses suspected in being involved in dodgy dealings in contracts awarded to their mates.
The formal notice is one of corruption, economic participation in business, influence peddling and falsification with cases of public money being shelled out directly to preferred suppliers.
The District Attorney’s Office said 'the strong evidence gathered essentially found that a group of individuals linked to political party structures developed among themselves influences aimed at deciding the conclusion of public contracts.’
There is a political bias to this latest operation as Sérgio Azevedo, an MP and vice president of the PSD until last February, is the main suspect. Both PS and PSD politicians, past and present, now are under the legal microscope.
Investigations have uncovered a web of dozens of people involved, including PSD and Socialist Party politicians, senior officials, advisers and businessmen.
The June 27th morning raids in ‘Operation Tutti Frutti’ took place in many locations from the north to the south including Faro, but mostly in Lisbon and were carried out by the Anti-Corruption Unit of the Judicial Police and involved 70 premises and around 200 people, several of whom are lawyers.
The thrust of the investigation is the crooked awarding of public contracts to suppliers ‘close to’ the politicians in charge of the purse strings.
Much public sector work seems to be awarded ‘by direct contract’ thus negating the need to get competitive quotes.
Today’s swoop will see several lawyers given the status of ‘arguido’ or defendant, on suspicion of being involved in crimes.
