Petrobras victim of “contractors' cartel”, concludes Congress report
The rapporteur of the Congressional Committee of Investigation on the corruption scandal involving Petrobras, Deputy Luiz Sérgio, has turned in the final report of the Congress probe to be voted on Thursday (Oct. 22)
The final report of the Congressional Committee of Investigation (CPI) about the corruption scandal at Petrobras says the state oil company was the victim of a contractors' cartel with the “aiding and abetting of some bad employees”. The document, however, was criticized for not recommending the indictment of any of the Congress members implicated in the investigations carried out by Federal Police in Operation Car Wash.
The draft submitted by the rapporteur of the committee, Deputy Luiz Sérgio, is due to be voted Thursday (Oct. 22). According to Luiz Sérgio, statements heard by the CPI proved that there were “personal motivations” for the wrongdoing.
“Whistleblowers confirmed the existence of a 'club' of contractors who met to fix detailed arrangements for their bids for Petrobras contracts,” the rapporteur said. The report made 30 recommendations to Petrobras, to the Prosecutor-General's Office, to the Ministry of Justice, to the Chamber of Deputies, and to the Ministry of Mines and Energy (which the oil company is linked to) as well as 14 suggested changes in a range of laws to prevent corruption.
It also clears former Petrobras CEO's José Sergio Gabrielli and Graça Foster “and former directors of the state-owned company, including President Dilma Rousseff” of the corruption allegations, as well as former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. According to the rapporteur, there were no mentions of their names in the whistleblowers' statements implicating any of them in the wrongdoing.
Luiz Sérgio has also disputed the conclusions of the Federal Police and Public Prosecutors regarding kickback payments made in the guise of official campaign donations to political parties. Explaining why he had left politicians' indictments out of the report, Luiz Sérgio said the CPI committee decided it would not pursue investigations on Congress members and the charges against them could be handled by other bodies such as the Ethics Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.
Deputy Hugo Motta, chair of the CPI, said their efforts have not “been in vain, because they led up to extensive investigations.” He argued that the CPI lacked the required tools to carry out a more thorough investigation, but the committee successfully produced an analysis of the political scenario surrounding the allegations.
The CPI's proceedings were due to end by Friday (23). According to opposition Deputy Ivan Valente, the investigation committee has made a serious mistake by not calling the implicated lawmakers to testify. “None of them was summoned; and the only one [who testified at all] was Deputy Eduardo Cunha [speaker of the Chamber of Deputies], who lied to the CPI by saying he had no offshore accounts.” Valente and other Congress members want the CPI deadline to be extended.
Translated by Mayra Borges
Fonte: Petrobras victim of “contractors' cartel”, concludes Congress report
