Politics
Brazil’s new government suffered a second blow to its credibility with another minister resigning after a secretly taped conversation revealed his attempt to hamper a corruption investigation at the state oil company. Transparency Minister Fabiano Silveira’s resignation comes within days after the country’s planning minister was forced to quit over a similar recording.
Both the ministers, who have been forced to quit the interim cabinet, were appointed when former President Dilma Rousseff was suspended, reports the BBC.
The latest development has intensified pressure on interim President Michel Temer, who needs to prove that the impeachment proceeding against Rousseff is not an attempt to “stifle” the biggest corruption probe in Brazil’s history, writes The Guardian. Seven ministers in Temer’s “all-male, all-white, interim cabinet” face corruption allegations in the Lava Jato (car wash) scandal.
Dozens of officials at the Transparency Ministry offered their resignations following the broadcast of the audio by TV Globo, notes Al Jazeera. In a symbolic gesture, the workers cleaned Silveira’s office and blocked him from entering the ministry’s building in the capital of Brasilia.
The Berlin-based watchdog group Transparency International called on Temer’s government to launch a comprehensive inquiry into the matter and appoint an appropriate minister to lead the fight against corruption.
