Vila Nova de Gaia, Portugal, Sept. 2, 2025 (Lusa) - The suspended chairman of the Board of Directors of municipal water company Águas de Gaia (ADGAIA), Miguel Lemos Rodrigues, has been charged by the Public Prosecutor's Office (MP) with various economic offences, including corruption, for allegedly violating public procurement rules.
In a note published on its website on Tuesday, the Porto District Attorney's Office (PGDP) stated, without mentioning names, that the Public Prosecutor's Office has charged nine defendants, one civil servant, three businessmen and five legal persons, with the offences of abuse of power, economic participation in business, active and passive corruption and influence peddling.
A judicial source told Lusa that the civil servant in question was Miguel Lemos Rodrigues who, in March of this year, was suspended from his duties as part of the inquiry, set up in 2019, which investigated the defendant's activity as chairman of ADGAIA's Board of Directors and his relationship with companies in the area of communication and image, in the context of public procurement.
"The Public Prosecutor's Office considered that there were strong indications that, as executive director of a municipal company in the greater Porto area, between 2018 and 2024, driven by personal interests, of the three accused businessmen and the accused companies, vitiated public procurement rules, in the context of the conclusion of contracts for the provision of services in the areas of communication and advertising," reveals the PGDP.
According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, this vitiation took place "in procedures by direct award, simplified direct award or prior consultation, with a total value" of almost €300,000.
"In particular, through the use of front companies appointed by the defendant managers to appear in the procedures as invitees; through the interposition of companies from the business relations of these defendant managers to benefit from awards, the services of which were provided by the defendant companies; through the fractioning in different awards of services of the same nature," the PGDP said.
The Public Prosecutor's Office also reported on the “conclusion by the municipal company of two simplified contracts totalling” €9,800.
"Used to compensate the company awarded the contract for overdue invoices owed by a defendant company managed, in fact, by the defendant official; furthermore, the influence that this defendant was willing to exert so that the company awarded the contract would also be contracted by other public entities," the indictment, quoted by the PGDP, states.
The Public Prosecutor's Office filed a request for the forfeiture in favour of the State of the amounts obtained from the conclusion of the contracts in question.
On 19 March of this year, Porto's Criminal Investigation Court (TIC) imposed coercive measures on Miguel Lemos Rodrigues, including suspension from office, a ban on contact with others involved in the case, and the payment of a €10,000 bond.
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