Second Minister in New Brazil Government Quits After Leaked Audio

Local Editor

A second minister in Brazil's new government resigned.

Fabiano Silveira was in charge of the ministry tasked with fighting corruption but left after a recording was made public, which seems to show him trying to derail a corruption investigation at the state oil company.

Last week the planning minister stepped aside after a similar recording was released.

Both men were appointed when President Dilma Rousseff was suspended.

She is accused of massaging budget figures ahead of her re-election in 2014, and is due to be tried in the senate in the coming months.

She has argued that impeachment proceedings against her are designed to stop the investigation into Petrobras.

Staff at his ministry had symbolically cleaned the building with broomsticks and demanded his dismissal.

Dozens of civil servants in the ministry's local offices had offered their resignation in protest.

In the recorded conversation broadcast on TV, he is heard seeming to advise the speaker of the Senate, Renan Calheiros and an ex-senator, Sergio Machado, on how to avoid investigations by prosecutors.

He is also heard appearing to criticize investigators in the Petrobras investigation, which has implicated dozens of senior politicians and has led to the jailing of several top business executives.

Machado, who is also the former president of Transpetro, a logistics company owned by Petrobras, is being investigated for corruption. As part of a plea bargain with investigators he has recorded a series of conversations with high-profile politicians.

The first one was made public last week and led to the stepping aside of a former Planning Minister and close advisor to President Michel Temer, Romero Juca.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team