Brasília, 7/22/2004 (Agência Brasil) - Beginning next month, the government is going to monitor the bank accounts of its civil servants. This will be done by the Financial Assets Control Council (Coaf) which is housed in the Ministry of Finance. The Coaf coordinates the government's campaign against money laundering and is a clearinghouse for denouncements of financial criminal activities. Through the Coaf, which can break banking secrecy, if anything unusual is detected in the bank account of a civil servant, the information can be crosschecked with the Brazilian IRS.

The monitoring of civil servant bank accounts is one of the provisions of the government's new law against money laundering (Estratégia Nacional de Controle à Lavagem de Dinheiro) (Encla). It will also be possible for citizens to denounce indications of illegal wealth.

The minister of Control and Transparency of General Government Control (CGU), Waldir Pires, says, "The measure is part of the process of consolidating democracy in Brazil. It is an example of democracy where citizens have their rights and guarantees, while at the same time they cannot violate the essential interests of society."

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Benedito Mendonça
Translator: Allen Bennett
07/22/2004