In the two weeks since it was installed, Brazil’s Parliamentary Investigative Commission (CPI) that is looking into a scandal at the Post Office has heard testimony from seven witnesses and ordered bank and telephone records of those involved.
The CPI is also examining some 90 contracts at the Post Office, along with other documents from the Federal Police, the Controller General Office and the Post Office itself.
The chairman of the CPI (as this is a joint commission, with members from the Senate and Chamber, it is correctly called a CPMI – the “M” standing for “misto” – “joint”), senator Delcídio Amaral (PT-MS), says the investigation is running a normal course.
The first thing the CPI examined was a video tape of the then-head of the Department of Contracts and Material, Maurício Marinho, who talked about a corruption scheme.
The CPI has been investigating everyone mentioned in the film or involved in making the film (that includes Marinho, and businessmen Arthur Washeck and Antonio Velasco).
In the film, Marinho accuses the president of the PTB, Roberto Jefferson, from Rio de Janeiro, of commanding a kickback scheme in the Post Office.
Jefferson has since charged that the PT has been paying monthly allowances (mensalão) to members of the PP and PL parties so they would vote with the government.
Besides the Marinho film, the CPI has been investigating the Jefferson accusations, which has led them to an adman, Marcos Valério, supposedly the mensalão moneyman, his wife, Renilda de Souza, and his ex-secretary, Fernanda Karina Somaggio.
“Although the political situation is complicated, our investigations are moving ahead. I want to make it clear this CPI is not going to whitewash anything. We will come up with results,” said Amaral.
ABr – www.radiobras.gov.br
