The minister also declared that there was no request to the president to return to the Ministry of Finance for a possible fourth term.
The Minister of Finance, Fernando Haddad, said, this Tuesday, 3, that he brought the Banco Master case to the attention of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) after Gabriel Galípolo assumed the presidency of the Central Bank (BC). According to him, Lula’s instructions were to take the case to the competent authorities so that possible crimes could be investigated.
“From the first moment, the guidance of the president of the republic was, if there is a crime, bring it to the attention of the responsible authority”, he stated during an interview with BandnewsFM radio.
He took the opportunity to praise Galípolo’s work at the BC: “I think that the Central Bank is already doing a good job on the regulatory issue, because it inherited a pineapple of the size it inherited”.
Haddad also stated that he never talked about the Master case with former BC president Roberto Campos Neto and that, during that administration, the case was “opaque”.
The minister said he understood the magnitude of the problem involving the case when, during the processing of the BC’s financial autonomy proposal, there were suggestions to increase the guarantee limit of the Credit Guarantee Fund (FGC).
“I only started to find this issue strange, understanding that it was a worrying thing when they started discussing the PEC of the Central Bank’s financial autonomy and within the scope of that discussion they wanted to increase the value of the FGC guarantee because the R$ 250 thousand was no longer allowing Master’s bicycle to run”, he stated.
Finally, Haddad stated that he hopes that the investigations will lead to the real people responsible for the Master case and where the money from the sale of the bank’s CDBs that are no longer in the financial institution’s accounts went, he said that the money trail is there and it is necessary to follow it.
Elections
The minister also declared that there was no request to the president for his return to the Ministry of Finance in the PT member’s eventual fourth presidential term.
The minister is expected to leave the Ministry of Finance in February and the executive secretary, Dario Durigan, is the main name being considered. This Tuesday, Haddad said he had not observed any relevant statement contrary to the name of Dario Durigan, when asked about possible resistance to the nomination, within the scope of the Workers’ Party (PT).
Haddad also repeated that he would like to participate in President Lula’s campaign this year. “It’s what I think I’m going to do best”, he assessed. He also stated that he had a very close relationship with Lula, without needing mediation, highlighting the fact that he was a minister for a period of 10 years.
