Peru's president will decide whether to accept the resignation of the entire cabinet in the wake of an oil-kickback scandal, Prime Minister Jorge Del Castillo said Thursday.
"We have offered our posts to the president (Alan Garcia) and under no circumstances will we get in the way of the country's growth," Del Castillo said in a televised speech.
Four audio tapes emerged on Sunday linking members of the ruling party to a plan to steer lucrative petroleum contracts to a Norwegian oil company in exchange for bribes.
In the speech, Del Castillo denies the claim, saying the government was not involved in the scandal.
Following the scandal, the government had removed Petroperu Vice President Alberto Quimper from his post and accepted the resignations of Energy Minister Juan Valdvia and Petroperu President Cesar Gutierrez.
Meanwhile, all the contracts with the Norwegian oil company were suspended.
However, the opposition party did not comply with the move of the government, urging Garcia to reshuffle the cabinet.
The congress accepted the reshuffle bill from the opposition, with 38 signatures from the congressmen.
According to the constitution, the entire cabinet should resign if over half of the congressmen supported the bill.
Source: Xinhua
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