Peru's President Ollanta Humala and two former presidents will be called to testify to a legislative commission over their potential involvement in a decade-long bribery scheme.
Former presidents and current presidential candidates Alan Garcia and Alejandro Toledo will be questioned by the commission, led by lawmaker Juan Pari. Current President Ollanta Humala could choose not to testify as he is still covered by presidential immunity.
A police investigation carried out in Brazil recently found that Brazilian companies have been paying bribes for decades to Peruvian state officials, since Garcia's last presidential term until now, in the case known as "Lava Jato."
Garcia and Toledo are both running for the presidential election scheduled for April 10, along with 17 other candidates. Former and current mayors of Lima — Luis Castañeda and vice presidential candidate Susan Villaran — have also been called by the court.
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The bribery scheme involves another proponent of neoliberal policies, presidential candidate Pedro Pablo Kuczynski. Pari says Kuczynski was potentially implicated in the bribery scheme when he was serving as a state official in Toledo's administration.
Garcia, Toledo and Kuczynski all attended the 6th International Anti-Corruption Conference, organized by the Peruvian treasury inspector's office, that started on Tuesday in Lima.
The treasury inspector, Fuad Khoury, said during the event that his office registered almost 22,000 criminal offenses committed by over 11,000 state officials in the past five years.
Khoury said the bill that Peruvian tax-payers have had to foot as a result of the corruption scheme may be as high as US$864 million. That figure excludes other corruption cases that the office probably failed to see, he added, especially in lower levels of public administration.
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