President Alan Garcia accepted the resignation of his entire Cabinet on Friday without naming replacements in response to an oil kickbacks scandal. Garcia's government has been rocked by the public airing of audiotaped conversations discussing kickbacks for steering government contracts to Norwegian oil company Discover Petroleum. Discover denies any wrongdoing. The president cleared out his Cabinet after already suspending the five oil contracts Discover won in a public auction last month and accepting resignations from his energy minister and the president of state oil company Petroperu. But opposition lawmakers had continued calls for a new slate of ministers. And Peru's Congress has launched an investigation into the Sept. 10 public auction that awarded Discover the exploration contracts. “I salute the noble political gesture of the Cabinet,” Garcia said.
