26 March 2015, News Wires – Petrobras has approved a project to revise its corporate governance and management rules as the Brazilian state oil giant looks to unravel large-scale alleged historical corruption.
The Rio de Janeiro-based player’s board on Wednesday approved the project “based on the new business environment and review of the company’s investment plan”.
The project will be led by new chief executive Aldemir Bendine and “by a group of executives with experience in various areas of the company,” it continued, without providing names.
In mid-January, Petrobras tapped veteran financial executive Joao Adalberto Elek Junior as its first governance, risk and compliance officer in the wake of a corruption scandal involving the company and numerous contractors.
Elek’s tasks over the three-year term include handling compliance with both US and Brazilian financial regulations.
When Bendine succeeded Maria das Gracas Foster as chief executive earlier this year, he said he was given full autonomy and freedom by President Dilma Rousseff to run the company.
“Petrobras will not stop. It will not go backwards. We will improve the governance model at the company to prevent mistakes, like the ones that occurred in the past, from happening again in the future,” said Bendine.
Petrobras is assessing the best methodology to try to come up with a number for an expected write-down in 2014, but Bendine has dismissed the 88.6 billion reais ($31.9 billion) figure alluded to by former chief executive Gracas in January
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