- 04 Jan 2015 11:39
#14506513
The corruption scandal comes at a bad time for Brazil's socialist government. They bet on Petrobras investments and now oil prices are down at the same time Petrobras is revealed to be riddled with high level corruption. This is one reason why ruling party changes deliver a great benefit: the ones in charge are a bit cleaner if they think they can lose power. Latinamerican governments are well known for corrupt practices. And the one leading the corruption rankings is Venezuela, where the same socialist party has had control for many years. These countries should adopt constitutions which apply strict term limits for individual politicians. That should help.
Corruption In Brazil
Nearly as ominous as the economic cloud hovering over Dilma Rousseff is the scandal surrounding Petrobras, the state-controlled oil company. It nearly cost her re-election, and could yet spoil her second term as Brazil's president.
The affair began in March, when federal police arrested Paulo Roberto Costa, Petrobras's chief of refining from 2004 to 2012, in a money-laundering investigation.
Mr Costa, seeking leniency, confessed to far more than that. Construction companies that won contracts from his division diverted 3% of their value into slush funds for political parties, he said. Police identified 10 billion reais ($3.7 billion) of suspicious payments, making the petrolão (the "big oily") Brazil's biggest corruption scandal.
In November police arrested two dozen executives from Brazil's six largest construction firms and another former Petrobras bigwig; 30 people have been indicted. Most of the alleged bribe-takers belong to the Workers' Party, which Ms Rouseff leads, or to her coalition allies.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/corrupti ... z3NqqvCeuy
The corruption scandal comes at a bad time for Brazil's socialist government. They bet on Petrobras investments and now oil prices are down at the same time Petrobras is revealed to be riddled with high level corruption. This is one reason why ruling party changes deliver a great benefit: the ones in charge are a bit cleaner if they think they can lose power. Latinamerican governments are well known for corrupt practices. And the one leading the corruption rankings is Venezuela, where the same socialist party has had control for many years. These countries should adopt constitutions which apply strict term limits for individual politicians. That should help.
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