THERE is nothing unusual about a retired president jetting around the world drumming up work for his country’s businesses. But amid the various corruption scandals surrounding Brazil’s governing Workers’ Party, prosecutors have decided to look into the trips that Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has taken since leaving office in 2011. Lula has visited places like the Dominican Republic and Ghana, where chums of his are still in power, allegedly to persuade them to sign contracts with Odebrecht, Brazil’s biggest engineering conglomerate.
For now, the prosecutors are merely pondering whether there is a case for investigating Lula formally for alleged influence-peddling, given his continued close links to power. He and Odebrecht deny any untoward dealings: both say that the firm simply offered Lula hospitality in foreign talking-shops that it sponsored. But the prosecutors’ move reflects broader worries about the cosy links between Brazilian business and politics. The country’s commercial and political elites have long been joined at the hip. Bosses and officials attended the same schools and frequent the same parties.
Enter the unlikeliest of heroes: the corporate lobbyist. A growing “government relations” industry is trying “to replace personal relationships with institutional ones”, says Caio Rodrigues, head of ABRIG, the lobbyists’ lobby. ABRIG has gone from...
from The Economist: Business http://ift.tt/1RJYsVF
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