TCU MP calls for suspension of “bonus” to ministers approved by higher courts

The Public Ministry at the Federal Audit Court (MPTCU) presented this Wednesday (27) a request to request the suspension of payment of the Additional for Time of Service (ATS), a pendant also known as a five-year period, which was approved this week by the Superior Court of Justice (STJ) and Superior Labor Court (TST).

In the document sent to the president of the TCU, Bruno Dantas, deputy attorney general Lucas Furtado asks the Court to decide to “adopt the necessary measures to investigate possible illegalities in the granting of remuneration benefits to ministers for administrative decisions”.

“What can be seen is that, once again, administrative decisions are used as real maneuvers so that, in the end, there is an increase in remuneration for certain careers”, wrote Furtado. “Both the TST and the STJ created, administratively, benefits that will increase the remuneration of ministers by 5% for each five-year period of exercise of their activities”, he added.

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The STJ unanimously approved the return of the benefit in a session of the Board of Directors last Tuesday (26). The rapporteur of the action in the collegiate was minister Benedito Gonçalves, who accepted the request of the Association of Federal Judges (Ajufe) for the ATS to be paid to active and retired ministers of the STJ who received this benefit until its extinction in 2006.

The rapporteur stated that the incorporation of the penduricalho into the beneficiaries’ payroll must affect the public service salary ceiling, currently established at R$44 thousand. However, the ATS payment history in other courts shows that this amount is generally distributed as compensation, not counted as salary, which allows the ceiling to be exceeded.

In April of this year, the Senate even discussed the approval of a Proposed Amendment to the Constitution (PEC) that grants a “bonus” in the remuneration of careers in the judiciary and the Public Ministry, the so-called five-year period. If it had passed the scrutiny of the National Congress, the proposal would have an annual impact of R$40 billion, according to estimates from the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT).

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The discussion did not progress in Congress under pressure from various sectors that criticized the cost and distortion of the measure. At the time, the adoption of the penduricalho was conditional on the approval of the bill to end super salaries, as a way of mitigating the effects of the five-year period.

Furtado argued in the order that the Constitution only allows changes to the remuneration regime for public servants by specific law. “The STJ and the TST decide to innovate in the legal system and, through administrative means, define not only the return of the payment of the Additional for Time of Service from the next few months onwards”, he stated.

The deputy attorney also requested that the TCU ministers investigate “possible illegalities” in the granting of the benefit. He asks that the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD), be informed about the decisions of the STJ and TST amid discussions about the five-year period in the House.

“It is not the responsibility of the TST or the STJ to establish, through its own resolution, the increase in advantages to be perceived by the respective ministers. It is clear that the Federal Constitution itself is not complied with when an increase in remuneration is granted without any participation from the Legislative Branch, which is responsible for approving the specific law that should deal with such an increase”, he argued.