Brian Winter and Leonardo Goy- Reuters, 8/17/2012
The ministry overseeing Brazil’s new $66 billion infrastructure plan was also ground zero for a spectacular corruption scandal last year in which officials allegedly demanded 5 percent kickbacks on highway construction projects and then pushed carts down the hallways to hand out the cash.
The transport minister and most of his staff resigned or were fired in July of last year, and a new, supposedly more scrupulous group is now in charge.
Yet the incident helps illustrate why President Dilma Rousseff’s plan to involve the private sector in more public works projects is not a cure-all – and why she still must make major inroads against graft, red tape and other obstacles in order to succeed.
