The Brazilian postal operator, Correios do Brasil, is at the centre of a major corruptionscandal that has so far led to a ministerial resignation and the departure of the postal operations
director and has partly overshadowed next month’s presidential election.The scandal surrounds Correios’ contracts worth nearly R$60 million (€26.7 million) withcommercial airlines to fly mail and parcels within the country. In particular, allegations ofwrongdoing focus on contracts with private cargo carrier, Master Top Airlines (MTA).
Leading newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo claimed at the end of August that the postalorganisation’s Operations Director, Eduardo Artur Rodrigues Silva, had previously been involvedwith the MTA management, and thus had a conflict of interests. Silva had run MTA before taking upthe position at Correios in early August, the newspaper claimed.
Correios responded to the original allegations at the start of September by denying thatRodrigues Silva had ever worked for the airline. It also stressed that all its contracts had beenawarded properly in line with legal requirements, and that all contracts with Master Top Airlineshad been concluded legally and transparently. The postal operator stressed its “determination tomaintain transparency of management” and its aim to retain public confidence “despite all effortsto discredit the organisation”.
But yesterday (September 19) Correios CEO David José Matos, announced that Rodrigues Silva wouldresign. This followed a new report in O Estado de Sao Paulo that the Correios operations directorwas involved in a group of companies based in Brazil, the USA and Uruguay, designed to conceal theforeign ownership of Master Top Airlines and thus enable its operation in the domestic market.
Meanwhile, last Thursday (September 16), Erenice Guerra, chief of staff of outgoing presidentLula da Silva, resigned following allegations that members of her family had used their influencewith state-owned Correios and profited from the air transport contracts having been awarded withoutany public tenders.
Brazilian media had reported that one of her sons allegedly took a fee for ensuring that privatecompanies secured the contracts, and claimed that her other son and various associates were alsoinvolved. Guerra denied the accusations and said she was resigning in order to defend herself.
The resignation followed emergency meetings called by President Lula. Presidential candidateDilma Rousseff, who preceded Guerra as Lula’s chief of staff, said Guerra had taken the rightstep.
But opposition politicians claimed that Guerra had been forced to resign now to ensure thescandal did not impact on the presidential election, which is scheduled for October 3. Rousseff hasa clear lead in the opinion polls.
