Brazil's Minister for Cities Mario Negromonte resigned from the post on Thursday amid mounting corruption allegations, thereby becoming the seventh Minister to quit President Dilma Rousseff's Cabinet since last June.
Confirming Negromonte's resignation, a presidential spokeswoman said he would be replaced by Aguinaldo Ribeiro, a sitting Congressman and a member of Negromonte's Progressive Party.
Negromonte's resignation did not come as a surprise as he had been the focus of corruption allegations in recent months. Although his Ministry was earlier accused of awarding contracts to companies that financially supported his party, Negromonte had rejected the allegations and pledged an investigation.
But Negromonte's fate was more or less sealed after Brazilian newspaper 'Folha de Sao Paulo' reported recently that his executive secretary had met with a businessman interested in bidding for a public works program in Cuiaba.
Negromonte's Cities Ministry was in charge of monitoring and awarding work contracts connected to the upgradation of urban transport in Cuiaba, which is one of the sites of the upcoming 2014 Football World Cup.
The wave of resignations by Ministers began after the President's chief of staff, Antonio Palocci, stepped down on June 7 over allegations of amassing huge personal wealth disproportionate to his known sources of income by serving in government and running a consulting firm.
In July, Transport Minister Alfredo Nascimento announced his resignation over graft charges leveled against his office. His resignation followed media allegations that his staff were demanding huge bribes in return for awarding federal infrastructure contracts.
A month later, Defense Minister Nelson Jobim quit office just hours after he publicly criticized the administration. Jobim reportedly submitted his resignation after a brief meeting with President Rousseff in which she had given him the choice to step down or be fired.
Later in August, Agriculture Minister Wagner Rossi stepped down amid a corruption scandal. Rossi represented the Democratic Movement Party of Brazil (PMDB), Rousseff's largest ally in the Congress. Local media had accused him of accepting bribes and free air travel from companies in return for favors from his Ministry.
In October, Sports Minister Orlando Silva submitted his resignation after being accused of corruption. He was accused of helping arrange kickbacks worth millions of dollars from a fund to promote sport for poor children.
Later, Labor Minister Carlos Lupi resigned in December, following allegations that he and his aides had demanded kick-backs from charities and non-governmental organizations in return for funding from the Ministry.
Lupi was also accused of receiving simultaneous salaries as a federal Congressional employee and from the State legislature of Rio de Janeiro. The Brazilian law prohibits an individual from receiving two government salaries at the same time. Also, a presidential ethics committee had accused him of mismanaging the Ministry and recommended his sacking.
Most of the Ministers who resigned were members in the previous administration of Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who had handpicked Rousseff as his successor while stepping down from office after serving two back-to-back terms as President of South America's biggest nation.
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