By Paula Buzzi
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil — Brazil’s labor minister, Carlos Lupi, now joins a list of six other cabinet-level officials in President Dilma Rousseff’s government with corruption allegations since she first took office in January. Reports by Veja magazine are alleging that Lupi and some of his top aids have received numerous kickbacks by private organization with government contracts. Veja cited unidentified law makers and officials in its report.
After the allegations came out over the weekend, Lupi has come under pressure by leaders of two of the opposition parties in the lower house of the Brazilian congress to quit. Although the ministry has declined to formally comment, a note on the ministry’s web site states that Lupi denies the allegations and is calling for an investigation by the federal police into the report findings.
“I can’t permit my 30 years of public service to be dragged through the mud by cowards who hide behind anonymity in the pages of a magazine,” Lupi quotes in a note on the ministry web site.
Since the allegations, Lupi has fired one of his advisers. His party, the center-left PDT party, is planning to hold a meeting on Tuesday to go over the allegations against him and listen to his explanations.
Several of the scandals that surrounded six other cabinet-level officials in Rousseff’s government this year have ended with the eventual withdrawal of support by Rousseff and the resignation of the accused cabinet-level official. Several of them also initially denied the accusations.
The last official to quit was Sports Minister Orlando Silva. He was also accused by the media of receiving kickbacks from public contracts with private companies. Silva initially denied the accusations but then resigned in October, two weeks after the first allegation.
Brazil loses up to 2.3 percent of its annual economic output due to corruption. Rousseff, from the leftist Workers’Party, however, appears to be riding the anti-corruption wave recently; working hard to combat corruption in the capital Brasilia. Last month, she suspended federal government payments to private groups that have been under suspicion of giving kickbacks to government officials.
According to Claudio Weber Abramo, the president of corruption watchdog Transparency Brazil, Rousseff’s government is being more aggressive with its fight against corruption compared to Rousseff’s predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula. “The government is taking a more vigorous approach in relation to its allies in ministries … It is saying to them: ‘We are watching you more closely’,” Abramo said.
Rousseff’s office has declined to comment on the latest accusations against Lupi.
For further information, please see:
MercoPress – Rousseff Could See Another Minister Out: Labour Accused of Corruption – 07 November 2011
Reuters – Brazil’s Rousseff Rides Anti-Graft Wave – For Now – 07 November 2011
Reuters – Brazil Labor Minister Latest to Feel Scandal Heat – 07 November 2011
The Wall Street Journal – Brazil Labor Minister Faces Corruption Allegations – 07 November 2011
