Lisbon, Nov. 17, 2025 (Lusa) - An audit of the Bank of Portugal's new building project is not on the Court of Auditors' (TdC) agenda. However, the institution does not rule out analysing this dossier, the court's president said.
"The Bank of Portugal (BdP) has independence that does not match the intervention of the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF), as an independent regulatory body, and therefore the Court of Auditors may, within the scope of its mandate and if it considers it to be one of its priorities, monitor this act of public expenditure," said Filipa Calvão in an interview with Lusa.
Even so, for the time being, auditing this operation between the central bank and Fidelidade "is not one of the court's immediate priorities," she said, emphasising that "no such audit has been requested" from the institution.
After the Minister of Finance asked the IGF to audit the construction of the new central bank building in Entrecampos, in the centre of Lisbon, the current governor, Álvaro Santos Pereira, warned that the banking supervisor cannot be audited by "politically controlled institutions", as is the case with the IGF, saying that it can only be subject to internal audits or those carried out by the TdC.
The president of the TdC said that there are other priority projects to oversee. "We approved a strategic plan back in October, which defined a series of priority intervention areas and that involves, on the one hand, [controlling] those sectors of activity that provide social services to the population," such as health, social security, education and housing, or projects that involve "large public investment", such as infrastructure and transport, she explained.
Within the regulatory sector, as is the case with the BdP, Filipa Calvão believes that "public spending by a regulatory authority on the construction of a building [is] not an immediate priority for the court".
"There may be other issues here that deserve closer monitoring. But it certainly hasn't been ruled out," said the president of the TdC.
At issue is the contract for the purchase of the BdP's new central building, signed with the insurance company Fidelidade, after the newspaper Observador reported in July that the operation includes “high risk” contingencies that could lead to the final cost exceeding €192 million.
According to the newspaper, the €192 million agreed with the insurance company refers only to the structural works (not counting finishes, painting, final flooring, interior finishes, among others).
The newspaper also reported warnings from BdP consultants, specifically regarding licensing and the possible need for an environmental impact assessment for the construction of the car park.
The construction of this building led the Finance Minister to ask the IGF for an audit on the subject, namely, on the value of the future facilities, when the governor of the central bank was still Mário Centeno.
On 25 September, when he was heard in parliament on the subject, the former governor said that the "final value" of the institution's facilities will depend on future decisions, but said that the move will bring operational savings.
At the time, he said that the information that had been made public about the project had been transmitted in a "truncated manner". He explained that the final cost "doesn't exist today" because there are decisions yet to be made about the contents of the space, such as "carpets, furniture, decoration".
Centeno explained that the value of the purchase of the building, €192 million, "has no uncertainty". The promissory contract signed with Fidelidade, he said, includes a series of contractual clauses that protect the bank's position. "What is different is what is not yet closed," and there is an additional cost that concerns the interior of the building, he said.
MES/ADB // ADB.
Lusa
