On Sunday night (26), President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) defended his former Minister of Education Milton Ribeiro, who was arrested on June 22 on suspicion of irregularities in the release of funds from the portfolio. He was released the next day and denies the allegations.
According to the president, there are “no minimal signs of corruption” in the case, and the former minister “was unfairly arrested”. The statements were made in an interview with Programa 4 por 4.
“Even the matter of money deposited in his wife’s or daughter’s account. It was proven to be the proceeds of a car sale. When I assumed the Presidency, I also had three cars and I sold them all, and my account reached 30, 40, 50 thousand reais. It’s an unusual move. Any deposit above 10K is unusual. But it didn’t justify what they did to Milton,” he said.
Bolsonaro said the purpose of the arrest was to “embarrass”, “humiliate”, and “say that the government is corrupt”. “These are narratives that constantly try to wear down the government. Nothing more than that,” he stated.
The president also said that he had given freedom to all ministers to set up their respective portfolios with the warning that they would be “watched by the left 24 hours a day”.
“They will try to find out something that you may have done wrong here in the ministry, and as far as I know, so far, none of my ministers have made a mistake, because we have filter mechanisms in ministries that prevent corruption, not on the part of ministers, that the minister often has no way of coordinating, knowing everything that happens in the ministry”, he said.
According to him, investigations into alleged irregularities in the Ministry of Education, with the involvement of pastors, were initiated by the Comptroller General of the Union (CGU), at the request of Milton Ribeiro himself, who would have suspected, according to Bolsonaro, of “something wrong with some people who were around him, the way he was harassed”.
“[O ex-ministro] asked the CGU to do a fine-tooth comb on contracts and observe the actions of these people, as far as possible. And within the law. And so it was done. And soon after, the Federal Police took this report made by the CGU and opened an investigation”, said the president.
Bolsonaro again stated that, if there are cases of corruption in any ministry, the government will collaborate with the investigations.
*Posted by Estevão Bertoni
Source: CNN Brasil
