Portuguese government seeks review of multi-million euro construction of central bank headquarters • KosovaPress

Portugal’s Finance Ministry has requested a review of the contract for the construction of the central bank’s new headquarters to examine the possibility of breaching the cost ceiling and legal risks.

The preliminary contract for the 192 million euro deal was signed despite warnings of “high-risk events”, including significant cost overruns and problems in obtaining permits, Portuguese portal Observador reports.

Shortly thereafter, the finance ministry announced that a review of the agreement had been requested, to be carried out by the General Financial Inspectorate.

The central bank declined to comment on the review today. However, Observador states that it was told that it had rigorously checked the legality of the contract and the financial terms, following domestic and international best practices.

After the portal made the data public, the junior partner in the ruling coalition, the conservative CDS-PP, summoned Governor Mario Centeno, whose term ended on Saturday, late yesterday to explain the situation before a parliamentary commission. The commission meeting will be held in September, after the summer holidays.

CDS-PP has requested the central bank to send the commission the contract and the analysis certificates of the commissioned work.

The government will decide at its meeting tomorrow whether to give Centeno another term as central bank chief or seek a new candidate. Centeno was appointed to the governor’s post by a center-left government.

The governor has already been the target of criticism from the right, unhappy that he came to the central bank from the finance ministry. This move, according to the right, undermined the central bank’s independence, reports KosovaPress.