Judge Sebastião de Arruda Almeida, from the Court of Justice of , only needed 12 minutes to make his decision. Filed at 5:51 pm on December 5, the proposal was approved at 6:03 pm, sealing an agreement that, in the judge’s words, had “relevant public interest”.
The agreement signed between the State Attorney General’s Office and the Association of Attorneys of the State of Mato Grosso made it possible to pay up to R$304,000 in fees to each of the 111 state attorneys.
The amounts refer to loss fees, paid when the party loses a legal dispute against the State, whose payment has been suspended since 2016.
Each attorney received proportionally for the period of work. The majority of the 85 received the maximum amount of R$304 thousand. The benefit, granted in December and dubbed by the local press as “peru voucher”, generated expenditure of R$28 million for the state.
The government of Mauro Mendes (União Brasil) and the Attorney General of the State of Mato Grosso were contacted for the report, but did not comment.
The agreement that made the payment possible was signed at a time when the (Supreme Federal Court) judged a direct action of unconstitutionality to prevent the disbursement of fees to Mato Grosso prosecutors in amounts above the remuneration ceiling.
The action was filed in 2019 by the (Attorney General’s Office), which challenges a state law.
In the Attorney’s Office’s view, public lawyers should not receive this type of fee, as the Constitution prohibits double remuneration for public servants.
Ministers Nunes Marques, rapporteur of the case, and , , and understood that the fees can be paid, but as long as they do not exceed the salary ceiling for public service, which is R$46 thousand.
The minister requested a review and returned the process to the plenary on November 5th. Voting will resume with the votes of him and , , and .
If it had already been approved, the STF’s decision imposing a ceiling on payment would make the anticipated agreement by PGE Mato Grosso unfeasible.
The commitment was signed one day before approval, on December 4th. Just as occurred in the judicial sphere, payment validation was also quick at the administrative level.
The president of the prosecutors’ association, prosecutor Caroline de Vargas Tumelero, made the request on December 27th and, the following day, the College of Prosecutors unanimously approved the feasibility of the payment.
In the administrative process, criticism was made of the PGR’s attempt to make the disbursement unconstitutional.
“The PGR’s attack against Mato Grosso’s legislation was surprising precisely because these resources [de honorários] They are not part of the State’s general budget, nor can they be used for different purposes, as they belong to the lawyer”, said attorney Wilmer Cysne Prado e Vasconcelos Neto in a favorable opinion to Apromat’s request.
In the assessment of PGE Mato Grosso, the sum of the loss fees is private because it is paid by an equally private party that is defeated after a court decision in favor of the State.
In the opinion, Wilmer suggested that prosecutors with more than five years of experience receive the full amount (R$304,000). The rest, under five years of age, should receive proportionally.
The unanimous approval of the calculation was supported by the favorable vote of the State Attorney General, Francisco de Assis Lopes.
“The pre-procedural solution avoids the multiplicity of individual actions, reduces costs and succumbing fees and favors the budget planning of the treasury, in line with the principles of efficiency and economy”, he said.
