Brasília, August 19, 2003 (Agência Brasil - ABr) - On Monday (18), the head of the Presidential Civilian Advisory Staff, Minister José Dirceu, reiterated President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's resolve to combat corruption in the federal government over the next four years. In the Minister's opinion, there is no more room in the public sphere for acts involving the embezzlement of federal funds. "Today's society no longer tolerates corruption, since that means stealing social resources to serve individual interests, and government programs on behalf of social inclusion, intended to reduce our shameful social indexes, end up being left in the dark," he emphasized.

Dirceu acknowledged that the government still needs to intensify its measures to combat corruption, and he disclosed that President Lula should shortly present a bill to Congress to characterize illicit enrichment as a crime. "Brazil, in recent years, has made great advances in fighting corruption. We have wide-ranging laws to prevent and repress acts of corruption," he pointed out.

The Minister called for internal and external controls on public accounts, even though he recognized that these controls are frequently "repressive." The Federal Controller-General, Minister Waldir Pires, expressed the same view. "Control constitutes our direct relationship with the nation. Without it, we suffer from an intolerable embezzlement of public resources in a country with such huge inequalities," he stressed. Dirceu and Pires took part in the opening of the seminar "Public Dialogue: the TCU in touch with the public administration and society," at the Federal Accounting Office (TCU). The gathering is discussing the monitoring of federal government resources. (DAS)