Petrobras CEO says she is willing to quit if necessary
Petrobras CEO Graça Foster 
Petrobras CEO Graça Foster confirmed today (Dec 17) that she talked to president Dilma Rousseff about her prospective departure from the state-owned oil giant and also the resignation of other directors. In a press conference at the company's headquarters, Foster said that the topic was discussed a few times with the president due to the investigations under Operation Car Wash and the resulting delay in drawing up the financial report for the firm's third quarter.
“The most important thing for this board of directors is Petrobras. It's a lot more important than my job. I won't say what the president answered [regarding my leaving the position open]. This is up to her to say. But today I'm here, the president of Petrobras, and I'll continue as such for as long as I still have the president's trust, and for as long as she believes I should stay,” Graça Foster declared.
The CEO went on to say that she “couldn't work” without the current board. “We're a team. We work in a very similar way. We share the difficulties and our concerns. The directors are free to make whatever decisions they want, but we're together in facing up to this situation,”she said.
Graça Foster further said she feels motivated to recover the company's credibility, which was shaken by Operation Car Wash, and to make control tools more powerful. In her view, the police-launched operation will serve as a valuable lesson to the firm, also for its upcoming refining projects.
She announced that Petrobras contracted to law firms, from Brazil and the US, in an effort to have the company's president as well as its directors and executive managers independently investigated.
“These people come into your room, open your closet, gain access to your computer, your iPad. It's an apolitical probe, which goes all the way down to the root of your professional life. It's something we had been eagerly waiting for,” Foster pointed out.
According to her, the publication of the report for the third quarter was postponed to late January 2015, due to the data being collected as the Federal Police hears testimonies and statements made as part of plea bargains; One of the most waited-for testimonies is that of Petrobras's former Service Manager Pedro Barusco, who, Foster believes, will make a revelation to investigators under such agreements. Putting off the balance sheet is supposed to allow for the possibility of re-assessing the company's assets, if necessary. She noted that this is the first time Petrobras's balance sheet does not undergo auditing.
Foster also declared that it will be one of the prerogatives of the recently-created governance director to find irregularities and breaches in projects before they are deliberated upon by the Petrobras's board.
Graça Foster went on to state that the e-mails sent by employee Venina da Fonseca before 2014 did not disclose corruption allegations. Foster claims that no one in the current board of directors was aware of any illicit scheme within the firm—they only learned about it when Petrobras was mentioned during the investigations carried out as part of Operation Car Wash.
In Foster's opinion, Petrobras's market value did not fall because of Car Wash only, but also because of external factors, like the depreciation of the real compared to the dollar, and the lower price of the barrel of oil.
Translated by Fabrício Ferreira
Fonte: Petrobras CEO says she is willing to quit if necessary
