Minister Flávio Dino, of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), prohibited this Thursday the allocation of parliamentary amendments to third sector entities, such as non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which are managed by relatives of congressmen or their advisors. The prohibition also applies to subcontracting companies in the same situation.
In the decision, Dino cites a report from the Globo which showed that the transfer of amendments to NGOs jumped tenfold since 2019 and reached a record R$1.7 billion in 2025. Part of this money was allocated by congressmen to structures controlled by family members, former advisors and political allies.
“As the report shows, there are serious signs of misuse of public funds, with the allocation of resources to satisfy private interests — a practice that is equivalent to the private appropriation of the Public Budget, in deviation from the objective and impersonal criteria that should govern state action”, wrote the minister.
The prohibition applies to NGOs that have in their administration “the spouse, partner or relative, in a direct line, collateral or by affinity, up to the third degree, of a parliamentarian responsible for nominating the amendment or a parliamentary advisor linked to him”.
Furthermore, resources cannot be sent to entities that “contract, subcontract or intermediate individuals or legal entities in which they participate, as partners or managers, service providers or suppliers of goods that fit the condition described in the previous paragraph, as final beneficiary of public resources”.
According to Dino, this measure is necessary to prevent nepotism and the occurrence of administrative improbity.
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410% growth
Since the beginning of the current legislature, in 2023, private entities have received R$3.5 billion in amendments, a volume 410% higher than the R$729.4 million allocated throughout the previous legislature, between 2019 and 2022.
The amount consolidates NGOs as the third main destination of funds under the control of congressmen, behind only city halls and municipal health funds. The total sent to non-profit organizations is already more than triple that sent to state governments and the Federal District (R$460.9 million).
Entities without headquarters
Another report from Globopublished this Thursday, showed that the record transfer to NGOs benefited entities without employees, headquarters and technical capacity to execute the projects for which they were hired.
In practice, despite being the formal recipients of the money, they only acted as intermediaries to release the funds. The model includes NGOs created or activated to provide registration data and enable transfers to third parties.
