The leader of the government in the Senate, AloÀzio Mercadante (PT-SP), affirmed, that the president of the PTB, Deputy Roberto Jefferson, must present the Congress, “as quickly as possible,” with proof of the accusations that appeared in the newspaper, Folha de S. Paulo.
He said that this is the only way for actions to be taken. On Monday, June 6, the Folha published an interview in which Jefferson charged lawmakers from the PL and the PP with having received monthly allowances of US$ 12.27 thousand (30 thousand reais) from the financial secretary of the PT, Delúbio Soares, in exchange for voting with the Administration.
From the Senate rostrum Mercadante warned that lawmakers who happen to be involved in this alleged scheme of corruption “will pay dearly.”
The Senator also pointed out that, if the president of the PTB fails to produce evidence of the charges he made, he must receive suitable punishment.
Mercadante said that it is necessary to await the investigations of the Comptroller-General’s Office of the Chamber of Deputies to decide whether the accusations are sufficiently well-founded to open a “full-scale” investigation.
The government leader affirmed that, if Deputy Roberto Jefferson was aware of these irregularities, it was his duty as a public figure to denounce them to the Comptroller-General’s Office of the Chamber, so that appropriate investigations could be conducted.
The leader of the PL in the Senate, Marcelo Crivela (RJ), occupied the tribune to call for the installation of a process to deprive Deputy Roberto Jefferson of his Congressional seat.
The president of the party, Deputy Waldemar Costa Neto (SP), filed a petition, yesterday, with the Chamber’s Ethics Council for the same purpose.
For his part, Senator Tasso Jereissati (PSDB), from the state of Ceará, affirmed that there is “systemic corruption at all levels and in all sectors of the federal government with the objective of withdrawing public funds.”
In Jereissati’s opinion, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva “is boxed in” by the accusations of corruption in his Administration.
Agência Brasil
