State government expenditures on , and the Public Defender’s Office, from 2022 to 2023, registered an increase of up to 36%.
This percentage was reached in Mato Grosso, while general spending in the same state rose 11% that year. The data was collected from the analysis of the Budget of 18 units of the federation — not all states provided the information for the survey.
These states directed R$77.1 billion to the Justice system in the period analyzed. The value is equivalent to around 7.6% of the total expenses of these locations.
The highest figure is from São Paulo, R$15 billion, with the Court of Justice alone costing R$12.3 billion.
São Paulo’s spending on the Justice system represented 5.1% of all amounts committed by the state. The percentage, however, is the lowest among the states evaluated by Justa.
The expenses of these institutions were targeted by the federal government during discussions on spending cuts. The National Congress concluded the cuts at the end of December, but withdrew the command. Entities linked to the judiciary, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Public Defender’s Office participated in the effort to overturn the device.
The president of the STF (Supreme Federal Court), said in December that the Judiciary defended part of the trinkets paid to magistrates. He stated that judges have the right to receive or collect cases.
The Justa Platform research also shows that the majority of these institutions’ expenses are related to payroll. In Pernambuco, 75.8% of the budget is directed to salaries.
The organization evaluated the amounts committed in each state. This is the stage of execution of expenses that precedes payment.
The salary sheets of Justice institutions have been expanded with extraneous items that fall outside the civil service ceiling. It is that of the STF ministers who define the maximum amount that civil servants should receive, currently set at R$ 44 thousand per month.
“What we observe is how much these legal careers create a parallel reality. No matter the scenario, crisis, context, they are always taking an increasing share of the public budget, and this needs to be stopped”, says Luciana Zaffalon, researcher and executive director of Justa.
“The ideal was to achieve a change that would transform the ceiling [salarial do funcionalismo] into a reality. Today, practically everyone has a roof over their heads, and benefits and compensations are created, it’s a huge creative hermeneutic to create so many alternatives”, says Zaffalon.
Justa analyzed expenses in Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Bahia, Ceará, Espírito Santo, Mato Grosso, Minas Gerais, Pará, Paraná, Pernambuco, Rio de Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul, Rondônia, Santa Catarina, São Paulo, Sergipe and Tocantins. These are the federation units that collaborated with the survey, based on information provided by the Access to Information Law.
In a statement, the government of Rondônia said that “administrative and financial autonomy is guaranteed to the Judiciary and the Public Ministry”. He also stated that he “does not have timely information about the expenses relating to the aforementioned power and body”.
The Court of Justice of SP said that it “regularly” makes payments of outstanding amounts and that these expenses “are supported” by decisions of the (National Council of Justice).
The other states and courts contacted by the report did not comment.
Justa’s previous report, , monitored expenses from 16 states, which totaled R$52.4 billion in amounts committed to the Justice system.
In the most recent document, Minas and Rondônia recorded a 30% increase in expenses in 2023. Then, Acre had expenses 29% above what it had recorded in the previous year.
The survey identified that some states had stable general expenses, such as Santa Catarina. The Santa Catarina budget allocated to the TJ, Public Ministry and Defender’s Office, however, rose 22% in the same period.
Zaffalon considers it a “profound bottleneck” that governments strive to increase funding for institutions “that have the responsibility to judge and supervise them.” “These are procedures that need to be reviewed,” he states.
The document also compared amounts spent on courts and other sectors. In São Paulo, the budget allocated to the court in 2023 exceeded the sum of expenses classified as science and technology (R$ 2.1 billion), environmental management (R$ 1.8 billion), culture (R$ 1.5 ), housing (R$1.2 billion), social assistance (R$1 billion), among other sectors.
The amount committed to the TJ in Amazonas, R$ 1.14 billion, exceeded the amount allocated to the TJ (R$ 214 million). In Santa Catarina, the TJ cost R$3.35 billion, while transport expenses reached R$1.6 billion.
