Petrobras Chief Executive Graça Foster To Be Replaced

02/03/2015 - 12h40

The Federal Government informed Petrobras President Graça Foster that she will be replaced in office.

President Dilma Rousseff has been trying to keep her friend in charge of the massive state run oil corporation, but she finally was convinced that the executive's position is untenable.

Rousseff's decision was strongly influenced by last week's report that Petrobras should reduce the value of its assets by US$ 32.5 billion due to corruption and inefficiency in planning and executing projects.

The President tried to keep Foster in command of the company as much as possible, but the executive herself has already filed her resignation on other occasions.

The Government believed her presence offered political protection against the allegations of corruption in the state run company.

Rousseff considered the assets reduction (the figure was left out of Petrobras' unaudited third quarter results) was unreasonable and its disclosure was a mistake.

Brazil's largest company lost nearly 3/4 of its market value in recent years due to an inflated investment policy and successive cases of corruption revealed by the Car Wash probe.

Rousseff is also personally concerned with Foster. The president has trusted the executive since she was chief of Petrobras Council and a Minister during Lula's administration.

Reports say Foster is under severe emotional pressure because of the case.

The Government is currently studying potential names for the position.

As published by Folha's political column Painel, Rousseff has started the recruitment process at the end of last week.

Finance Minister Joaquim Levy went himself to Sao Paulo on Monday (2) to track potential candidates to fill the post.

Translated by JULIANA CALDERARI

Read the article in the original language

	Ricardo Borges - 29.jan.15/Folhapress
	Federal Government has informed that Petrobras President Graça Foster will be replaced in office