Corruption in Brazil
[1][2][3] Operation Car Wash showed central government members using the prerogatives of their public office for rent-seeking activities, ranging from political support to siphoning funds from state-owned corporation for personal gain.
[4] Corruption directly affects the welfare of citizens by decreasing public investments in health, education, infrastructure, security, housing, among other rights essential to life, and hurts the Constitution by expanding social exclusion and economic inequality.
[5] Studies by the Getúlio Vargas Foundation (FGV) from 2009 estimate that the Brazilian economy loses from corruption, every year, from one to four percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the equivalent of one value over 30 billion reais.
[8] The "Brazilian way" is seen as a practice of "small corruptions", such as evading taxes, stealing cable TV signals, jumping the queue, simulating or concealing business, among others.
This technique allows individuals to enrich themselves, and also finance political campaigns (as seen in the Petrobras scandal), and is closely linked to public contracts with private enterprises.
[13] Fernando Filgueiras writes: tolerance to corruption is not a deviation of the Brazilian character, a propensity and cult of immorality, not even a situation of cordiality, but a practical disposition born of a culture in which preferences are limited to a context of needs, representing a survival strategy that occurs through the material issue.
[21][22] A unique complex network analysis[23] revealed associations between those involved in corruption scandals included not only active (elected and non-elected) politicians, but also both state-owned and private companies favored in bidding processes for large infrastructure construction projects.
Recent examples have been reported in small primary schools[25] where products like pencils and notebooks were bought with padded invoices, as well as in grand-scale construction projects,[26][27][28] roads,[29][30] football stadiums,[31][32][33][34] (not least in connection with large-scale events such as the Olympics and FIFA's World Cup).
On October 13, 2020, Transparency International pointed to a "progressive deterioration of the institutional anti-corruption framework in the country" and serious setbacks in the fight against corruption in Brazil.
[38] To occupy and administer the new territory, a task quite complicated by the geographic distance and precariousness of communications, the Portuguese crown had to offer incentives and relaxed the vigilance of its representatives.
Recently, however, several cases have become increasingly public knowledge and have been reviewed in books including Elio Gaspari's series of historical analyses[44] and in the news.
The dissatisfaction in a wing of the Party of the Brazilian Democratic Movement (PMDB), the current MDB, led to the founding of the Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB).
The height of the crisis came during the creation of the new constitution at the National Constituent Assembly, where party members put the duration of his mandate in check, voting for a four-year term for Sarney, despite the five-year thesis prevailing, led by a majority of the caucus PMDB and conservative politicians.
[49] In the last two decades of the 20th century, particularly after the end of the military regime, notorious cases of corruption gained great prominence in the media, having even resulted in the removal of Fernando Collor de Mello – first president of Latin America to suffer an actual impeachment process.
[52] The new government assumed by Vice President Itamar Franco was initially supported by all political forces in Congress, except the Liberal Front Party (PFL), which also began to suffer allegations of involvement of ministers in corruption.
Fernando Henrique Cardoso's government, led by the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), was also hit by a series of corruption accusations, firstly regarding federal "help" offered to banks such as Nacional and Econômico, and the creation of the Proer [pt].
One of the people cited in the accusations was a former director of Banco do Brasil, Ricardo Sérgio de Oliveira, who was in charge of financial resources for FHC's campaign, and was said to favor business with a consortium of Telecom Itália and Daniel Dantas' Opportunity Asset bank.
[51] Probably the worst accusations referred to the purchase of Congressional votes to introduce a constitutional amendment to allow for reelection to executive roles, namely the president.
Telephone recordings made public by Folha de S.Paulo in 1997 revealed conversations between representative Ronivon Santiago (Progressistas Party – State of Acre) and a voice identified by the journal as Senhor X, to whom Ronivon Santiago reports that he received, along with four other representatives, 200 thousand reais to vote for the reelection amendment, paid by the then-governor of the state of Acre, Orleir Cameli.
[53] By the end of 2000–2001, the attention on FHC's government had moved from corruption accusations to the energy crisis ("Crise do Apagão [pt]"), after a wave of blackouts started in 1999.
Initially a money laundering investigation, it later expanded to cover allegations of corruption at the state-owned oil company Petrobras, whose executives took kickbacks for awarding contracts to construction firms at inflated prices, and in other state-owned companies, The operation issued more than a hundred search warrants, and ordered temporary and preventive detention and coercive measures in its investigation of a money laundering scheme suspected of moving more than R$38.1 billion" (approximately US$11.3bn) as of November 22, 2016.
[63] to favor large contractors who practiced cartel, who in turn made payments bribes to politicians who defended the interests of these construction companies involved in the scheme.
[79] In December 2014, the Controller General of the Union (CGU), through the minister Jorge Hage, appointed 22 responsible for the business, among them, José Sérgio Gabrielli and the former directors Nestor Cerveró, Paulo Roberto Costa, Renato Duque and Jorge Zelada, and exempted the president Dilma Rousseff, who chaired the board of directors of Petrobras, and Graça Foster, from any responsibility.
[81] Dilma, who chaired the board of Petrobras from 2003 to 2010, denied knowledge of any wrongdoing[82] The Brazilian Supreme Court authorized the investigation of 48 current and former legislators, including former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, in March 2016.
[84] In 2017, Dilma Rousseff had her assets blocked by the Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) for damages to Petrobras, and another five former members of the Board of Directors of the state-owned company were also affected.
In another recording, also from March, the businessman reportedly told Temer that he was paying an "allowance" to Cunha and the operator Lúcio Funaro, so that they would remain silent in prison.
If found guilty legal entities are subject to losing 0.1% to 20% of their gross revenue along with the removal of all public loans, assets, and government subsidies.
Foreign public officials found guilty of corruption are liable to penalties and up to eight years of imprisonment, while at the same time being subject to any punishments placed on legal entities.
[114] The motto "He steals, but he also works" ("Rouba, mas faz") was first attributed to Ademar, suggesting that a politician that builds a good government can be elected despite his electoral crimes.
During the impeachment process of Fernando Collor de Mello, supporters of parliamentary system said that parliament needed powers to more easily change the chief of government.
