Argentine spies to open accounts in bribe scandal

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) -- Argentina's secret service, defending itself against suspicions of bribing senators to pass a government-backed law, will open up its accounts to a judge's scrutiny, officials said on Tuesday.

"This is aimed at clearing up doubts about the management of funds by the Intelligence Department (SIDE)," chief government spokesman Dario Loperfido told reporters.

Center-left Alliance President Fernando de la Rua, who won elections last October promising to clean up Argentine politics, will sign a decree authorizing the SIDE to provide details of its accounts to legal officials, Loperfido said.

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Secret service chief Fernando de Santibanes has already denied that the SIDE channeled secret funds to pay alleged bribes to senators to secure approval of a government-sponsored labor reform bill in April.

Federal Judge Carlos Liporaci suspects 11 of the Senate's 69 members -- mainly members of the opposition Peronist Party -- of taking, or at least knowing about bribes.

Liporaci has said he suspects the money came from the state but he has not said who could have paid any bribes.

The pressure of persistent rumor and accusations by a union leader forced both the secret service chief and Labor Minister Alberto Flamarique to deny paying cash for votes.

De la Rua says he believes his officials. But opinion polls show the scandal has tarnished the government's reputation for honesty. Rumors that the government paid money to pass the reform bill surfaced months ago, but the scandal blew up in August when a senior Peronist senator told a shocked chamber he was sure his peers had accepted cash.

The lawyer for a Peronist senator at the center of the scandal said he would step down for 90 days as he was probed for other alleged bribery offences.

Calls for Sen. Emilio Cantarero, of the opposition Peronist Party, to resign began last month when daily La Nacion reported the senator had admitted he had taken a bribe to vote for labor reform.

Last week, Sen. Silvia Sapag, from a small provincial party, accused Cantarero of offering her money to support a separate bill to regulate the oil and gas industry.

Cantarero, who denies the accusations, at first said he would not step down. Now he has decided to take 90 days leave without pay while a congressional commission investigates Sapag's accusations, Cantarero's lawyer Andres Marutian told reporters.

"At no time has the senator considered resigning," Marutian added.

Few Argentines believe the investigations will result in convictions, polls show. Public skepticism has been reinforced by a formal corruption investigation of Judge Liporaci's own finances.

Officials say in private that de la Rua is planning a major ministerial reshuffle to recapture public confidence in a government that is also struggling to drag South America's second-largest economy out of recession.

Local media report that only a few cabinet ministers -- including economy minister Jose Luis Machinea -- are safe as de la Rua plans his changes.

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