caracas march 24 reuters  venezuelas need for dollars to shore up its exchange rate and enable government largesse ahead of 2024 elections is among the motives for a crackdown on alleged corruption at state oil company pdvsa four sources with knowledge of the matter said the arrests this week of more than 20 pdvsa officials prompted former oil minister tareck el aissami long prominent in the government of president nicolas maduro to resign he was replaced by pedro rafael tellechea who had been named to head pdvsa in january maduro said that his government was committed to going to the root of corruption calling the probe which began last year professional scientific and disciplined his administration has provided scant further details of the alleged wrongdoing three of the sources said the arrests of the pdvsa officials were linked to an investigation into heavy losses the company suffered last year as tankers left the country carrying cargoes that had not been fully paid for pdvsa has accumulated 212 billion in unpaid bills according to documents seen by reuters after turning to dozens of littleknown intermediaries to export its oil under us sanctions those pending payments are a sore spot for the government as it gears up for next years presidential elections which traditionally see a jump in public spending the sources said the government has said it expects oil exports to finance 63 of its national budget in 2023 the money is whats important the money is the central point of this mess said a political source if you dont have money what do you do invent votes the finance ministry the central bank and pdvsa did not respond to requests for comment nearly all of pdvsas commercial crude and fuel exports have been halted amid a review of contracts part of an audit begun by tellechea after taking the helm it is unclear whether the corruption probe and contract review will concretely improve pdvsas cash flows in the near future but it has come at a time when maduros government faces pressure to raise public sector pay which has held steady for a year even as prices for food and public services have shot up maduro increased the monthly minimum wage by 58 in march 2018 two months ahead of the last presidential contest whose results are contested maduro relaxed currency controls in 2019 allowing a de facto dollarization in a bid to combat rampant inflation the government later used dollar injections to stabilize the exchange rate along with public spending cuts and other measures cash flows from pdvsa to the central bank which injects dollars into the economy have been intermittent in recent months said three of the sources who have knowledge of finance and ruling party economic strategies consumer price increases fell to single digits for about a year but annualized inflation surged back to 537 in february according to the nongovernmental venezuelan observatory of finances falling dollar cash flows have led to a sharper depreciation of the bolivar currency since late last year the governments exchange strategy will remain the same in the coming months said one of the sources adding the government will need more foreign cash to keep up injections of dollars which local companies need to pay providers and for imports the central bank had just 420 million to offer to banks between the start of 2023 and midmarch according to estimates from economic firm sintesis financiera during all of 2022 it had tripled dollar injections to 37 billion some 36 billion of pdvsas pending payments may be unrecoverable reuters reporting showed because they are tied to tankers that left the country without prepaying at least a portion of the cargoes value pdvsa last year delayed cash payments in dollars to several of its suppliers because of dwindling income reporting by mayela armas and vivian sequera in caracas additional reporting by mircely guanipa writing by julia symmes cobb editing by christian plumb and rosalba obrien