A key subject in the Pactum operation, which was publicized in April, is Carlos Moura, an IT director at the Bank of Portugal (BdP), who, even after being made a formal suspect, signed a public contract on behalf of the institution.
The report notes Carlos Moura is being investigated for irregularities in public contracting and proceeded with a project despite the suspicions of criminal authorities.
It was only in May that he stopped signing other contracts.
According to the same source, as director of the department of information systems and technology at the Bank of Portugal, Carlos Moura signed, alongside the deputy director of the support services department, the agreement with Warpom Services for equipment maintenance and technical support. The contract document is available on the Base portal, here.
What is at stake in the Pactum operation?
The BdP confirmed in April that an operation by the Judicial Police (PJ) was underway at its facilities. The Pactum operation is investigating suspicions of overbilling in the awarding of IT contracts worth 17 million euros.
“The Bank of Portugal confirms that a Judicial Police operation is underway at its facilities, fully cooperating,” read a statement released at the time.
The Judicial Police conducted a large-scale operation to execute 75 search and seizure warrants across various public entities due to suspicions of overbilling in awarding IT contracts amounting to 17 million euros.
The searches were conducted in homes, accounting offices, company headquarters, public institutes, and other state services in Greater Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, aiming to gather information related to the services’ employees and not “political decision-makers.”
The Pactum operation concerns “behaviors related to service acquisitions in the IT area by several public entities and a private entity between 2017 and 2025.”
“At the core of the investigation is a group of individuals who, in a coordinated and premeditated manner, manipulated dozens of public and private contracting procedures, totaling no less than €17,000,000,” clarified the Judicial Police and the Public Prosecutor’s Office in a joint statement.
The potential crimes include economic participation in business, unauthorized access with breach of confidentiality, abuse of power, active and passive corruption, document falsification, computer fraud, subsidy fraud, qualified tax fraud, influence peddling, criminal organization, and money laundering.
