New headquarters of Banco de Portugal is “worse and opaque” solution, accuses PS

O PS today asked the governor of Banco de Portugal, Álvaro Santos Pereira, about the changes to the contract of the new headquarters, considering that this solution “is worse, opaque, without information and not rigorous”.

Banco de Portugal (BdP) reported today that it changed the promise contract of the purchase of the new headquarters in Entrecampos, Lisbon, to have only one building, instead of two, pointing a reduction in investment by 35 million euros, to 225 million.

“ We moved from transparency [from Mário Centeno] to opacity. What the governor of Banco de Portugal presented today is a statement in which we do not know the projects, the negotiations, if there was an audit of those projects, to understand if the projects were all adequate and safeguarded the interest of Banco de Portugal, the public interest ", criticized, in statements to journalists, the deputy of PS, Carlos Pereira.

From the socialist perspective, this solution “is worse” and, “more serious than that, is opaque, has no information, is not transparent, is not even rigorous”.

“And this concerns us significantly. And I also want to say that it is very important to understand what the Board of Directors thinks on this issue,” he said.

Carlos Pereira said that the Board of Directors is the same and, when the former governor Mário Centeno presented his solution, “there was a consensus” among the administrators.

“Now, we are talking about a completely different solution, which costs more per square meter, which does not gather all the services of the same space and we need to understand what the Board of Directors really thinks,” he said.

Considering that Álvaro Santos Pereira “will have to explain all this in the coming times”, the deputy of the PS said that the party admits to request a parliamentary hearing if these explanations do not arise until the end of the budgetary procedure, during which time other work in Parliament is suspended.

“The Governor of Banco de Portugal was very famous to make accusations to the former Governor and is three months ago to answer the Assembly of the Republic to a request that was made by the Parliamentary Group of the PS on July 11,”, he criticized, demanding that all this documentation be sent.

For Carlos Pereira, today’s statement “is almost a gimmick” because “I conclude that this work is 35 million euros cheaper”, which says it is “another lie”.

“ We had a headquarters of 27,000 square meters and now a headquarters of less than 5,000 square meters. We're buying a much higher value per square meter. If we compare the price that Mário Centeno wanted to buy the previous headquarters with the size that Álvaro Santos Pereira wants to buy this, we are talking about another five million euros ", compared.

The deputy of the PS began the press conference with a provocation, referring to an episode of the time when Álvaro Santos Pereira was Minister of Economics: “The Banco de Portugal is not exactly a cream pastry shop”.

According to the statement, the change to the contract was signed this week between the BdP and Fidelity, promoter of the construction of future facilities, by adding to the purchase and sale promise contract concluded in 2025.

With the change, the value of the purchase of the low building from €191.99 million to €65.09 million and the overall amount of the estimated investment, which includes furniture and technical training for the space going into operation, will be €225 million, less €35 million than that projected in the initial version (€260 million).

The initial promise contract provided for the purchase of two separate buildings, united by a tunnel (the so-called A3 and A2 buildings).

The change to the contract provides for an exchange of buildings, to a single tower of the same undertaking (building A1), with an auditorium located separately in building A3.