MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil's Finance minister targeted by prosecutors

The Brazilian Attorney General's Office will file corruption charges against Finance Minister Antonio Palocci, reported Tuesday Correio Brasilienze in Brasilia.

Quoting prosecutors Aroldo Costa Filho and Sebastiao Sergio de Silveira, the article says there's sufficient evidence to prove that during Mr. Palocci's time as mayor of Ribeirao Preto, the municipality bribed 23.000 US dollars a month from the local private waste disposal company.

According to an investigation by prosecutors the money guaranteed the contract between the municipal government headed by Palocci and the Leao Leao Company to which some close supporters of the mayor had links.

The first allegations in the case were revealed by Rogerio Buratti, who served as an adviser to Mr. Palocci and later worked for Leao Leao.

Palocci was mayor of Ribeirao Preto from 1993 to 1996 and again from 2001 to 2002, when he resigned to join President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's administration.

The allegations of wrongdoing during his time as mayor of Ribeirao Preto have placed Palocci in a delicate position, with increasing speculation in financial and political circles that he will have to resign in coming days.

Mr. Palocci has been summoned Wednesday before a congressional committee that plans to question him about Brazil's economic policy and the charges against him. The Brazilian press reports the minister has been out of sight since last Friday, and his office claims he has taken several days off.

Since last May/June President Lula da Silva's Workers Party has been exposed in Congress to corruption charges particularly a regular payments scheme to ensure political support for the administration with money laundered from private and government companies. The corruption ring that forced the resignation of several close aides of President Lula apparently managed tens of millions of US dollars deposited in local banks and overseas financial havens.