Portuguese Public-Owned Enterprises (POEs)

The Portuguese State continues to hold a significant amount of public companies which, in turn, are responsible for important values for the Portuguese economy. This work analyzes the evolution of the Portuguese State as owner or manager of companies in the national economy. Additionally, this work also focuses on the evolution of the strategies developed by Portugal to identify and fight corruption cases involving public companies. The respective legislation has had more frequent contributions in the last 20 years. There was also a stimulus to fight corruption on a European scale, which motivated the Portuguese State to fight a more incisive fight against a problem that also attacks public companies themselves. This work will also reflect that when there is corruption in the universe of public companies – the resulting distortions are also, in turn, increased.