Silva resigned to clear his name after allegations printed by influential magazine Veja surfaced accusing him of embezzling $23 million (£15 million/€17 million) for himself after awarding fraudulent contracts via such organisations.

He is also accused of using money to fund the Communist Party he is part of, which is ruling in coalition with Rousseff's Workers' Party.

The contracts related to a number of projects aiming to encourage poor children to practice sport, but it is alleged that kickbacks were made to Silva.

Rousseff has now suspended payments to NGOs for the next 30 days in order to assess their running of the programmes concerned in the matter.

After the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil opened an investigation into the allegations last week Silva decided to resign to clear his name, suggesting that he is the victim of a "public lynching", and has since been replaced by Aldo Rebelo.

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