HOME > Brazil

The Slip-Up - A Story of Corruption - Part II

Follow the outcome of this chronicle of real corruption, in which an authority figure attempts to corrupt an official who was previously considered the pillar of morality.

SECOND PART (Click here to read the first part first.)

— Dimas.

This time, the chief of staff, heavier and more ruddy-faced, answered the first call. The governor insisted on shouting the names of his subordinates from the anteroom. He could easily have pressed a button on the telephone, but he thought it better that everyone hear him summoning his aides. He was economical with praise and lavish with reprimands so that everyone could hear the rebuke and tremble – a ritual of the office. After all, this is power. And power is for those who know how to wield it with zeal and authority.

Yes, Your Excellency.

So, Salgado didn't succumb to temptation?

Unfortunately not, Your Excellency.

So, there's really no way around it?

— Man is a rock of virtue, excellence.

Having made the decision many days ago, the governor pretended to think, to meditate cautiously, while he reveled in the ethereal anxiety of his chief of staff.

— Then let's dynamite this rock, Mr. Dimas.

— How, Your Excellency? How?

With his eyes, the governor swept the office, lingering on a porcelain vase smuggled from China. Only then did he concede:

There is only one honorable way out, Mr. Dimas.

"Which one, Your Excellency? Which one?" pleaded the chief of staff.

— We're going to fire Salgado.

— Fire him?! But he's the pillar of morality.

The governor smiled, good-naturedly.

That's where the danger lies, Mr. Dimas.

"Prepare the dismissal decree," he ordered. And faced with his subordinate's perplexity, he concluded:

My government will not allow any slip-ups.