Petrobras Corruption Scandal

Voters are often rewarded with patronage jobs. However, patronage can result in poorer service to the

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how Brazil, a country with an extremely high rate of inflation and low growth, positioned itself as the 7th largest economy of the world and what are the challenges that the country is facing. First of all the Real Plan of Fernando Henrique Cardoso and how it helped the country to stabilize its economy and drop down the inflation rate will be discussed. Secondly how his successor’s policies, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, improved country’s economy. At the end the challenges that Dilma Vana Rousseff, the current president, is facing

Many believe that congress is trying to look after themselves because of the “Car Wash Investigation” and blaming everything on Rousseff for what happen and claiming that she could have used the money for her pass reelection and no one would know but her. When congress voted to impeach Rousseff and she did not stand a chance losing by a landslide now the senate where they will check on whether congress vote is true or not deny the impeachment. The reason why I choose this current event is because it reflects back on the reading called “Never Meant to Survive” by John H Costa Vargas. In the reading Vargas talks about Brazil myth. “According to the existing myth, Brazil is a polity characterized by the relative unimportance of race both as a cognitive-moral category and as a determinant of one’s structural social position” (104). In other words, what Vargas is saying that Brazil is still based on a social hierarchy and how the power stays within the same social class. When congress got caught with the scandal behind Rousseff back they blamed everything on her to sustain the power. Brazil is known for having hundreds of Favelas where poverty is at its extreme. As talked in class the rich and elite earned money are not invested in poor society, but rather back to themselves or somewhere elsewhere. When Dilma Rousseff was in office the economy was at the best and before that Brazil was still

Dilma Rousseff- President of Brazil, has a tough agenda to address issues and challenges within Brazil. However, her administration also needs a strong plan for the global stage. I would like to discuss recent global challenges of Brazil .Here are three global challenges Brazil will face in Rousseff’s second term:

This demonstrates the discrepancy of income between social classes in Brazil. Lula is considered an example of the elite in Brazil, since he has wealth and power galore. He is affiliated to the Worker’s Party, which is ironic because according to his accusations, he was not looking for the workers, but for his own interests. What is interesting is that Lula is considering running for presidency again this year, and even more interesting is that he can’t be prevented from doing that because there is a law on his side, which affirms that his candidacy can only be prevented by convictions from two judges, and Lula has been convicted from only one so far (D’Agostino,

South American governments have always been somewhat corrupt. However, recent public abuse of resources for private gain -- corruption -- has created a disaster in Brazil, and it seems everyone in power is connected in one way or another. During the past fourteen years, construction company executives (among others) colluded to overcharge Petrobras, a state-owned entity, for government contracts, and Petrobras executives looked the other way in exchange for bribes. Petrobras executives then bribed government officials to keep them quiet. (Beauchamp). No one knew about these deals until oil prices unexpectedly dropped, creating massive debt and exposing the deficit the corruption created. The scandal has effectively strained the government's

So, what made the disparities in Brazil so highly? Experts believe that the origins of disparities can be divided into four: rural urban divide, low levels of education, pro-rich tax system, and high land ownership concentration. To briefly introduce four factors, rural urban divide was caused those living in rural areas to have a lack of education, with low quality. Not only in education, but also in healthcare and technology, rural people faced the lack of qualities. Secondly, low levels of education limited the opportunities of those in rural areas, and narrowed the chance to decline the income gap.

I only have fond memories, though there were times when I think back and question the value of the country. I’d think back to when my great-grandmother told me not to bring my best clothing because the poorer citizens are increasingly aggressive towards wealthier people. However, in a report in the The World Factbook from the CIA, “More than half of Brazil's population is considered middle class, but poverty and income inequality levels remain high; the Northeast, North, and Center-West, women, and black, mixed race, and indigenous populations are disproportionately affected” (2016). So, that leaves me with the question, if more than half of the population is in good standing, why does the media portray Brazil in a bad

Brazil, as it is known today, is a young country. Its capital city, Brasilia, was built in 1956. Its democracy only started in 1989, with the country’s first direct elections ever, ending a 25-year dictatorship era. And we still feel the burden of its young institutions

Political stability is best defined as the durability and integrity of a current government regime. Many countries in contemporary society make the transition towards democracy with the intention to become more politically stable in order to conduct their affairs. This trend of democratization often does result in lesser tension between government and those being governed. However, political unrest is still frequently experienced in some countries that have successfully established a democratic regime, while the same is virtually nonexistent in others. For that reason, political instability and its causes is often a controversial topic generally discussed by social scientists and scholars. While many factors have influence on the likelihood

The issue of Patronage is everywhere. It's more common than people think. One definition of patronage is basically "the distribution of jobs and favors on a political basis, as to those who have supported one's party or political campaign" [1]. This states that anyone who supports someone's political party or campaign can get jobs and favors handed to them because of who they know. Nepotism is a form of patronage and is defined as "favoritism shown on the basis of family relationship, as in business and politics" [1]. Essentially, if someone works for the county, they can get any one of their family members a job, even if they aren't qualified. This is a very important issue that needs to be recognized and fixed.

This strategy was a means of organizing workers under direct control of the government, and to encourage the industrialization of cities in Brazil.

Contracts with Petrobras increased the need for new employees in the companies, mainly experts in various areas of engineering: piping, mechanical, hydraulic, civil, petroleum and gas, in addition to new designers and IT experts. It is worth emphasizing that the IT park of the companies investigated has undergone significant changes based on the contracts with Petrobras, due to the specificity of the software dedicated to its projects. With the new employees, new departments and new working routines were created, which were intended to leverage different areas of engineering.

“The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those that have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little” (Roosevelt, 1937). In countries that have unequal distribution of wealth, the lower socio-economic class suffers and the wealthy flourish. Roosevelt is saying that a measure of a country is what they do to make up for this inequality, which in Brazil has not been much. Due to Brazil historically being run by elites, the current day economic pattern and its affect on the country shows that the elites hold the majority of the wealth within the country while the poor hold the minority of the wealth. This inequality leads to the unequal distribution of education, power, and health care.

Petrobras is an oil based company located in Brazil. The case encompasses about the bribery scam which involved Petrobras the giant oil based company. On April 2014 Petrobras had to adjust their financial statement and when the statement was released the company faced heavy losses because of corruption of an estimated losses of 6.2billion$. Investors were now losing hopes on Petrobras and this was a bad news for Petrobras once considered one of the top listed oil company because of its huge offshore reserves , Petrobras is reeling from allegations that former executives and contractors conspired with politicians to extract kickbacks and bribes from the company.