and the Senate have launchedinquiries.This scandal has contributed greatly to the fall in the popularity ofthe president, says Senator Alvaro Dias, of the opposition PSDB, who isparticipating in one of the congressional inquiries into the case. Thepresidents approval rating has fallen from above 60 per cent early last yearto less than 40 per cent. But Ms Rousseffs rulingWorkers party (PT) dismisses claims that Petrobrass problems have damaged herchances of winning a second term, saying the president has been cleared of anywrongdoing in the scandals.Beyond party politics, however, the controversy has highlighted whatanalysts say is a dangerous flaw in Brazils national institutions: the easewith which politicians are able to use state companies as a source of illicitcampaign funds. The truth is most parties try to use state-owned enterprisesfor their benefit, said Sergio Lazzarini, a professor at business school,Insper, in Sao Paulo.The Petrobras project at the centre of the scandal involving Mr Costaand Mr Youssef is a refinery near Abreu e Lima in north-eastern Brazil.A square in the small town features two statues, one honouring JoseInacio de Abreu e Lima, a revolutionary who left Recife and fought forindependence in Venezuela and Colombia. The other is of the Venezuelan generalSimon Bolivar, his comrade and another of the continents independence heroes.I guess one must be Abreu and the other is Lima, says Francisco de Oliveira,a 21-year-old bricklayer, leaning on the monument.But if the towns residents seem oblivious to the Brazilian freedomfighter, the Petrobras refinery project has also done little to honour hismemory. Envisioned as a partnership between Brazil and Venezuela, the projecthas become the focus of a police investigation into money laundering, known as LavaJato, or Jumbo Wash, in which Mr Youssef and Mr Costa have beenimplicated.In 2006, when the project began construction, former president LuizInacio Lula da Silva, Ms Rousseffs predecessor and mentor, was pictured withthe late Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez shaking hands at the site. Therefinery was meant to be a business joint venture that would processVenezuelas heavy crude. But Caracas never put a cent into it: even theanti-capitalist Chavez was put off by its escalating costs, former Petrobrasexecutives joke.From an original budget of $2.5bn, the cost of the 230,000 barrels-a-dayrefinery soared to $20bn, or $87,000 per barrel of refining capacity. Thismakes it one of the most expensive ever built, analysts say. The internationalaverage cost is between $13,000 and $39,000, according to an estimate fromCredit Suisse.Although a listed company, Petrobras has always been politicised. Butoil executives say Mr Lula da Silva and his allies deepened the practice,assigning a larger number of senior positions to political appointees, from theformer chief executive Jose Sergio Gabrielli, a PT member, to Mr Costa,regarded as a representative of the pro-government Progressive party.The PT saw . . . that Petrobras could be a great instrument topreserve power, says Adriano Pires, founder of the BrazilianCentre of Infrastructure, a research company.The PT rejects such arguments, saying it is just oppositionelectioneering that irresponsibly taints the reputation of Petrobras. MrCostas lawyer said while he might have had political support, he was a careerPetrobras engineer appointed on merit.It was also from around 2006 that Petrobras