Corruption in Brazil: Ministers step down on monthly basis

By Helmut Reuter Dec 6, 2011, 2:06 GMT

Brasilia - Six ministers have resigned in Brazil in the space of six months, all of them amid allegations of corruption, which has set a new record of sorts.

Until recently, Brazilian Labour Minister Carlos Lupi, 54, appeared confident as he aggressively rejected all accusations. He would only leave the job, he said, if he were 'shot'.

'And it will take one heavy bullet, because I am big,' he said.

And yet the strategy did not pay off. Lupi lost the support of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, and even that of his own party. He became the sixth minister to resign in Brazil since early June amid corruption allegations.

Lupi's ministry reportedly accepted bribes for contracts with NGOs and directed those illegal funds towards his Democratic Party, an ally of Rousseff's Labour Party. He also used a plane belonging to an NGO: he initially denied it, but eventually admitted it quietly. Moreover, Lupi is reported to have illegally held dual public office for years in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro.

Too many allegations, according to the presidential Ethics Commission, which demanded his dismissal last week.

President Dilma Rousseff expressed annoyance at the commission's decision, but she herself had expressed doubts about the minister and intended to dismiss him nonetheless. Instead, Lupi quit.

But the problems regarding her 38-minister Cabinet do not affect her directly. Indeed, she is well-served by a speedy reaction in the face of allegedly corrupt ministers and their weak explanations: it suits her to come across as a zero-tolerance leader.

The image of booming Brazil, the host of the 2014 football World Cup and the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, is being stained by these corruption scandals.

The powerful Antonio Palocci resigned as chief of staff in June. Rousseff was unhappy to let him go, but he sounded unconvincing in his explanations of why his wealth had multiplied twenty-fold between 2006 and 2010, while he was a legislator.

The resignations of Agriculture Minister Wagner Rossi, Traffic Minister Alfredo Nascimento, Tourism Minister Pedro Novais and Sports Minister Orlando Silva followed.

They all fought hard against corruption allegations, and most of them argued to the end that they were victims of 'slander and lies.' Lupi, who had been a minister since 2007, also insisted that he was the target of a 'political and personal persecution' by the media.

Former Brazilian president Fernando Henrique Cardoso (1995-2003) blames corruption scandals on his successor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2011).

According to Cardoso, Lula, who is Rousseff's mentor as well as her predecessor, had during his second four-year mandate been obsessed with expanding support for the government in Congress to include as many parties as possible. Cardoso wrote in the daily Estado de Sao Paulo that Lula allowed certain political organizations access to public funds.

In Cardoso's opinion, Rousseff's greatest challenge is bringing down this system.

'I hope the president manages to do it. But in order to do so she will need to change the government's (power) foundations,' said Cardoso, who left his mark on the new Brazil with his successful campaign against hyperinflation in the early 1990s.

Unlike Lula, who generally opted to close ranks and refused to sack ministers when faced with government scandals, the 'Iron Lady' Rousseff has since her inauguration in January given her team the message that there will be no cover for corrupt officials.

Rousseff has already announced a Cabinet reshuffle for January.