Danilo Macedo and Luana Lourenço Reporters Agência Brasil

Brasília – During testimony that lasted more than three hours, minister of Sports, Orlando Silva, denied accusations of embezzlement. The hearing took place in the Chamber of Deputies, before a joint session of the Financial Oversight and Control and Tourism and Sports commissions.

Silva denied that he received money from the Second Half Program in exchange for releasing funds to NGOs. The minister recognized that the charges were serious, but fired back: “It is a serious matter when a weekly newsmagazine makes charges like these but does not present any proof,” said the minister. He pointed out that he has personally asked the Federal Police and government attorneys to investigate the charges. “I have made my bank statements and telephone records available to the authorities,” he revealed.

In his testimony, Silva defended the Second Half Program and said that all suspect contracts were being examined by the government watchdog agency (“Tribunal de Contas da União”). As for the person making the accusations, a policeman named João Dias Ferreira, the minister called him “dishonorable, a criminal, someone who had been arrested,” and said his information was from “a bandit source.”

As Silva testified before the joint commission, members of opposition parties met privately with Dias Ferreira. According to one of the leaders of the opposition, deputy Antonio Carlos Magalhães Neto (DEM-BA), “We were told shocking details that did not appear in the magazine article and given material evidence of wrongdoing by the minister and the ministry.”

Members of the opposition called the appearance of the minister before a parliamentary commission before the testimony of the accusation “pure grandstanding,” and announced they will request that testimony by Dias Ferreira be heard in the Chamber of Deputies.

Allen Bennett – translator/editor The News in English

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