Peru president accepts resignation of Cabinet
1:00 AM
Posted: Saturday, October 11, 2008
LIMA, Peru (AP) -- President Alan Garcia accepted the resignation of his entire Cabinet on Friday without naming replacements in response to an oil kickbacks scandal.
Garcia's government has been rocked by the public airing of audiotaped conversations discussing kickbacks for steering government contracts to Norwegian oil company Discover Petroleum. Discover denies any wrongdoing.
The president cleared out his Cabinet after already suspending the five oil contracts Discover won in a public auction last month and accepting resignations from his energy minister and the president of state oil company Petroperu.
Peru's Congress has launched an investigation into the Sept. 10 public auction that awarded Discover the exploration contracts.
"I salute the noble political gesture of the Cabinet, which, harassed momentarily by politics," offered to resign to avoid being an "obstacle" to the country, Garcia said at a news conference.
Garcia -- whose approval rating hit a low of 19 percent prior to the scandal -- must now rebuild his administration in the midst of a global financial meltdown and just a month before Peru hosts leaders from 21 countries for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
He did not say when a new Cabinet would be named.
The first audiotapes to surface allegedly captured two members of Garcia's political party discussing payoffs: Alberto Quimper, a state oil executive, and Romulo Leon, agricultural minister during Garcia's first administration in the 1980s.
Quimper was fired from his post Monday and arrested late Tuesday. An arrest warrant has been issued for Leon, whose whereabouts were unknown.
New tapes surfaced Tuesday and Wednesday, ensnaring former Cabinet Chief Jorge del Castillo, Garcia's right-hand man, in the scandal.
On the tapes, Leon allegedly told a Discover representative that del Castillo would be open to supporting Discover's bid to land oil contracts in Peru.
Del Castillo denies the claim and says he is willing to submit to an investigation.
He led 16 ministers in presenting their joint resignation on Thursday.
"We leave clean, with the same transparency with which we entered" office, del Castillo said Friday.
Garcia's government has been rocked by the public airing of audiotaped conversations discussing kickbacks for steering government contracts to Norwegian oil company Discover Petroleum. Discover denies any wrongdoing.
The president cleared out his Cabinet after already suspending the five oil contracts Discover won in a public auction last month and accepting resignations from his energy minister and the president of state oil company Petroperu.
Peru's Congress has launched an investigation into the Sept. 10 public auction that awarded Discover the exploration contracts.
"I salute the noble political gesture of the Cabinet, which, harassed momentarily by politics," offered to resign to avoid being an "obstacle" to the country, Garcia said at a news conference.
Garcia -- whose approval rating hit a low of 19 percent prior to the scandal -- must now rebuild his administration in the midst of a global financial meltdown and just a month before Peru hosts leaders from 21 countries for the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
He did not say when a new Cabinet would be named.
The first audiotapes to surface allegedly captured two members of Garcia's political party discussing payoffs: Alberto Quimper, a state oil executive, and Romulo Leon, agricultural minister during Garcia's first administration in the 1980s.
Quimper was fired from his post Monday and arrested late Tuesday. An arrest warrant has been issued for Leon, whose whereabouts were unknown.
New tapes surfaced Tuesday and Wednesday, ensnaring former Cabinet Chief Jorge del Castillo, Garcia's right-hand man, in the scandal.
On the tapes, Leon allegedly told a Discover representative that del Castillo would be open to supporting Discover's bid to land oil contracts in Peru.
Del Castillo denies the claim and says he is willing to submit to an investigation.
He led 16 ministers in presenting their joint resignation on Thursday.
"We leave clean, with the same transparency with which we entered" office, del Castillo said Friday.
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