The Court of Justice has irrigated the use of interest rates on judicial deposits.
The Special Expense Fund, used to finance benefits such as premium licenses, aid and indemnities for São Paulo magistrates, in addition to other expenses, was turbocharged last year with an extra revenue of R $ 2.6 billion, obtained from interest of deposits in court under the control of the court itself.
The money is the result of a contract that maintains it with Banco do Brasil to manage the accounts in which these values are. While court decisions that can release these appeals do not come out, the TJ-SP receives interest on the amount stopped.
the contract with the bank made the values of the special expense fund will shoot.
By 2020, the year of signing the contract, the fund had obtained revenue from bank benefits of $ 1 billion. Two years later, with the current contract, this revenue jumped to $ 3 billion (200%increase). Last year, after signing a contractual additive, this revenue rose to $ 3.7 billion (the values are updated by inflation).
Equity revenue is the one obtained from assets, such as rental and investment income or, in this case, interest on judicial deposits.
“The use of judicial deposit funds by the Court of Justice as its own assets can generate conflict of interest because it creates incentives to postpone the release of these values,” says Rafael Rodrigues Viegas, professor at FGV and researcher at INCT Qualigov and ENAP (National School of public administration). Other lawyers, listened to anonymity for fear of reprisals, say the same.
“The conflict of interest and the lack of transparency in the use of court deposits by the courts can be compared to the management of parliamentary amendments, which have been the subject of tension between legislature, executive and STF,” says Viegas.
“Just as the rapporteur amendments create a parallel budget without proper inspection, the use of the income from without external control deposits allows these values to be allocated as a secret budget, in a very transparent way and to preserve a logic of privileges in Judiciary that is very lasting in the Brazilian state, “he adds.
The Court’s contract with Banco do Brasil established a table to calculate payment based on the country’s basic interest rate, Selic. Initially, the contract limited the remuneration of TJ-SP to 0.23% per month, considering a Selic of up to 12% per year. In the second half of 2022, with the expectation that Selic exceeded this value, a new table was created.
“Due to the high maintenance of the Selic rate in this biennium [2022-2023]with gradual reduction, reaching 12.25% in November 2023, and the implementation of the renewed table, the TJ-SP obtained significant revenue from that contract, related to the remuneration of judicial deposits, “says the court’s latest management report , 2023, published last year.
The report states that “from the Special Expense Fund, the resources used for payments for vacation, premium license, aid, nursery, funeral, health and transportation)”, as well as computer expenses, computer maintenance, building maintenance, bust are mostly. and File Management of the Court.
In the last two years, the TJ-SP has earned R $ 5.5 billion with the income of judicial deposits, according to the courts published by the Court on its transparency page.
The cash surplus has allowed the court magistrates to receive one, according to the Sheet It showed, above the constitutional ceiling (R $ 44 thousand).
The greatest discomfort of the lawyers heard by the report is with the precatory, the debts of city halls or the state with taxpayers already recognized by the court. These debts follow a list of creditors and can take years to be paid by governments.
The complaint is that, after the release of the money, the creditor still expects months to receive it, as the TJ-SP maintains an internal process of authorization of transfers. While the case is not completed, the money is deposited in court, and the court continues to receive interest.
Banco do Brasil reported in a statement that “the contract with the TJ-SP has the typical characteristics of the contracts dealing with this issue, and it is important to highlight that the instruments involving organs of the judiciary are governed by specific rules that guarantee transparency, efficiency and legal compliance “.
Fund ensures resources that expand access to justice, says TJ
By note to Sheetthe TJ-SP pointed out that the Special Expense Fund is intended to “ensure resources for expansion and improvement of judicial activity, aiming to expand access to justice,” as well as can be used for expenses arising from administrative decisions and food aids, Nursery and funeral.
“By allocating Fed resources, the TJ-SP strictly observes such purposes, always focusing on the institution’s unwavering commitment to an increasingly efficient, accessible, modern and swift justice,” says the note.
The note does not respond to the questioning made by the report about the eventual conflict of interest or denies the use of resources to pay off -ceiling advantages to the magistrates, but lists investments made by the court in the period.
Between 2021 and 2024, the note says, the TJ-SP acquired 40,000 computers and notebooks and over 80,000 monitors, appointed nearly 8,000 new servers and 320 magistrates and installed 61 new court courts and 48 judicial processing units.
“Regarding the precatory, numerous management measures were adopted to streamline payments, with remarkable results,” says the text. Between 2021 and 2024, the TJ-SP reports that it has made available R $ 59 billion to beneficiaries of this type of appeal.
