The first preliminary report from Brazil’s Post Office CPI – Comissão Parlamentar Mista de Inquérito (CPMI) na Empresa Brasileira de Correios e Telégrafos (ECT) – will be presented today by the commission redactor, deputy Osmar Serraglio (PMDB party from Paraná state).
It is expected that Serraglio will request the expulsion of eighteen members of Congress who are supposedly involved in a monthly payoff scheme, which paid congressmen in parties allied with the government a monthly allowance (“mensalão”) to vote with the government.
Illegal Emigration Inquiry
The director of the Department of Brazilian Communities Abroad at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, Manoel Gomes Pereira, is scheduled to testify before members of the Illegal Emigration CPI (Comissão Parlamentar Mista de Inquérito (CPMI)) which is investigating the emigration of Brazilians to the United States and other countries.
Gomes will report on the diplomatic mission which was sent to England to accompany the investigation into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, a Brazilian who was shot by London police on July 22 after being mistakenly identified as a suicide bomber.
Two More CPIs
Party leaders in the Brazilian Congress are meeting today to discuss the installation of two more joint parliamentary investigative commissions. A decision on the issue will be made by the president of the Congress, senator Renan Calheiros.
The two new CPIs would look into charges of graft at the Reinsurance Institute of Brazil (IRB), and the country’s domestic and foreign debt.
At the moment, there are CPIs investigating the Post Office, bingos, illegal emigration, land conflict and vote buying.
ABr