The Lisbon Expo '98 world fair has been shaken by the arrest of its top financial official on fraud charges. Portuguese newspapers reported yesterday that more than $5 million was missing from the event's accounts.
The fair organisers announced on Monday night that the financial director, Mr Joao Caldeira, had been detained after an audit showed discrepancies in the festival's accounts.
Three other people were suspended pending further investigations.
Expo 98's secretary general, Mr Antonio Mega Ferreira, told journalists that no wrongdoing had been suspected until outside auditors began a routine check on the accounts to prepare for the close of the fair at the end of next month.
"The audits showed that something was not right," he said without giving exact figures.
However, according to reports in the Diario de Noticias and Publico newspapers yesterday, a sum of around one billion escudos ($5.5 million) was involved.
Expo '98, which opened on May 22nd, celebrates the 500th anniversary of navigator Vasco de Gama's discovery of the sea route to India.
More than 150 countries are taking part, with the exhibitions dedicated to man's relationship with the sea and his use and misuse of the marine environment.
However, it is also a huge urban development project, with several thousands flats and houses being built on what was once a rundown and polluted stretch of the Tagus river east of Lisbon.
The Portuguese government set up Parque Expo in 1993 and gave it 330 hectares of industrial land along the Tagus. It was to rehabilitate the land, install the world fair on 60 hectares and carry out a city planning project to build more than a million square metres of housing.
The new area was due to house 25,000 people within a decade. The first financial irregularities were reportedly detected in the accounting of the housing co-operative called "Mar da Palha". Mr Caldeira, head of accounting and cash flow at Parque Expo and vice-president of the co-operative, was taken into custody on Friday evening as he attended a concert.
He was reported yesterday to have admitted his actions and said he acted alone. However, police also arrested the Parque Expo computer manager, Mr Armando Ruano, when he returned from vacation.
Parque Expo, out of concern for transparency, suspended its chief financial officer, Mr Pedro Figueiredo, and the co-operative president, while Parque Expo general secretary, Mr Joao Martins, requested that he be suspended until the end of the investigation.