Brazil's Senate rules out Rousseff's participation in fiscal pedalling

Brazil's suspended President Dilma Rousseff, has not been found directly delaying the government's payments to public banks, a practice known as "fiscal pedalling," according to a report released Monday by the Senate.

However, the report added that Rousseff was responsible for issuing two credit decrees without authorization from the Congress.

In the 223-page-document, the auditors said there were irregularities concerning decommitments without legal permission and delays in paying public bank subsidies to the Harvest Plan for financing the agricultural sector.

The document was put together using reports from the Federal Court of Accounts and with authorization from Ricardo Lewandowski, president of the Federal Supreme Court.

Both "fiscal pedalling" as well as the decrees that were unauthorized by Congress were the basis for beginning the impeachment process that suspended Rousseff from her post.

Rousseff's defence team assured that permission from the Congress to issue the challenged decrees was not necessary. But the Senate's technicians said in the report that authorization was compulsory.

Last week, the Senate's Impeachment Commission approved a new timetable which means that the final vote that will decide Rousseff's future will take place at the end of August.

If two thirds of the senators, or 54, find Rousseff to be guilty, she will lose the presidency and cannot take up a civil service position for eight years. However, if she is acquitted, Rousseff will be reinstated as president as soon as the sentence is published.

While Rousseff is suspended, interim President Michel Temer has been in charge of running the South American country.

However, over recent months, Temer has seen his popularity steadily decrease, according to a survey carried out by the consultancy firm Ipsos which was published Monday by local daily Estado de Sao Paolo.

Temer's disapproval rate among citizens grew from 61 percent in February, to 67 percent in May, and 70 percent in June, said the survey.

This percentage is similar to that of Rousseff, who currently has a disapproval rating of 75 percent.

Temer, who belongs to the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party (PMDB), assumed the role of provisional president on May 12 after the Senate suspended Rousseff for 180 days in order to investigate the administrative irregularities.

The survey confirms a strong deterioration in the presidency's image, a result of the successive corruption scandals within Operation Car Wash which has uncovered a large corruption scheme involving the government-owned oil company Petrobras.

All potential presidential candidates have a disapproval rating greater than 50 percent in the South American country.

The Workers' Party leader, former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva (2003-2011), registered a disapproval rating of 68 percent in the survey while the president of the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB), Aecio Neves, has 63 percent.

At the same time, current Foreign Minister Jose Serra and Sao Paulo's governor Geraldo Alckmin, both from the PSDB, have a disapproval rating of 55 percent while Senator Marina Silva has 56 percent.

While politicians are suffering from the alleged corruption claims, judges are receiving high rates of approval.

Judge Sergio Moro, responsible in the first instance for Operation Car Wash, has an approval rating of 55 percent, while Joaquim Barbosa, the former president of the Federal Supreme Court and reporter for the Mensalao corruption scandal back in 2005, has an approval rating of 42 percent. Endit