Members of the (Advocacy General of the Union) received R$6.1 billion in death fees in 2025, a record boosted by payments of retroactive funds and food and health aid. The amount is almost triple the amount paid in 2024 (R$2.1 billion).
The data was collected by Sheet on the Transparency Portal. According to the survey, 5,876 employees received extra remuneration above R$700,000 during the year, which represents almost half of the 13,000 recipients.
One of them is the minister of AGU, who is a prosecutor at the National Treasury. He received R$713.5 thousand, in gross values (before income tax), apart from his minister’s salary.
In a statement, the AGU said that, as a career member, Messias is entitled to the funds. The body also stated that the payments respected the salary ceiling for civil servants, currently at R$46,400 per month, with the understanding that retroactive funds are not subject to this limit. The minister also has part of his salary retained by the Union through the so-called “ceiling reduction”.
The AGU fees were created in 2016 and implemented in 2017 as a type of bonus paid to employees in the Executive’s legal area for their work in defending the interests of the federal government. They benefit Union lawyers and attorneys from the PGF (Federal Attorney General’s Office), the PGFN (National Treasury Attorney General’s Office) and the
In general, they are considered by other categories as a type of pendant to boost the remuneration of AGU careers. This Wednesday (25), the (Supreme Federal Court) resumes the judgment on the extra funds, also received by members of the Judiciary and the Public Ministry.
The transfer of fees is carried out by the CCHA (Curator Council for Lawyers’ Fees), a private entity managed by representatives of the careers that benefit. The institution receives monthly millionaire transfers made by the Union, relating not only to fees collected in actions in which the Union wins, but also to a portion of the charges charged on debts included in the active debt, regardless of the existence or not of legal action. All AGU members receive payment, and one of the factors that dictates the amount is career time.
In the beginning, the annual payment of fees was no more than R$1 billion, in current values. As of 2021, however, the amount distributed to career members began to grow rapidly, in the wake of increasing federal revenue. The peak occurred in 2025.
As a rule, fees are subject to the civil service ceiling, thanks to the understanding adopted by the STF in a judgment concluded in 2020.
However, retroactive payments end up exceeding this limit. Last year, for example, the CCHA authorized the payment of a third of vacation on fees.
The third of vacation is an amount considered compensatory and, therefore, is already outside the salary ceiling. The same occurs with food assistance, which complements the benefit given to all federal employees, and health assistance. With the CCHA’s decision to authorize reimbursement retroactive to 2017, with the application of interest and monetary correction, a large part of the AGU members.
The amount received by Messias in 2025 was above the average (R$470.5 thousand) paid to AGU members last year.
“As a member of the National Treasury attorney’s career, Jorge Messias has, like other federal public lawyers, the right to receive succumbing fees. These fees are not covered by Union budgetary resources. These are resources of a private legal nature, arising from amounts paid by the losing parties in legal proceedings in which the Union is the winner”, said the AGU.
The former president of the (National Social Security Institute) Alessandro Stefanutto, who is a federal prosecutor, also received R$713,500 in fees last year. As part of Operation Without Discount, which investigates fraud in the collection of association fees from retirees, he will have to return part of this amount.
After being contacted by Sheetthe CCHA reported that, on March 6, it was formally notified by the AGU General Administration Secretariat about the suspension of payment of fees to Stefanutto, starting from November 13, 2025, when he was arrested.
The note does not detail the amount to be returned, but, according to data from the Transparency Portal, Stefanutto received R$19,700 in December (relative to the previous month), R$15,900 in January and R$30,700 in February. When contacted, the defense of the former INSS president did not speak out.
The increase in the amounts paid to AGU members occurred at a time when the government (PT) was trying to convince Congress to vote on a project that .
The initiative faces resistance from federal, state and municipal careers benefiting from the profusion of so-called penduricalhos.
At the beginning of this year, the attack was reinforced by STF ministers who issued injunctions suspending transfers of extra-cost funds. Now, the Three Powers are trying to reach a consensus around a national law to limit these remunerations.
Defenders of the fees argue that the funding has a positive impact on the productivity of Union lawyers and prevents the loss of talent to other careers or to the private sector. They also emphasize that the values are subject to Income Tax. Last year, it is estimated that R$1.2 billion was collected into public coffers from the taxation of these remunerations.
Inside and outside the government, however, technicians criticize the loopholes to get around the civil service ceiling. The lack of transparency regarding payments has also been a problem, minimized by the creation of a panel describing these transfers. Detailed data, however, is only available from June 2025 onwards.
In September last year, Messias issued an ordinance to create a public structure for monitoring CCHA’s activities. The rule provides that the AGU Superior Council, an advisory body made up of representatives from the top legal professions, can recommend measures such as hiring an independent external audit and establishing an ethics committee within the scope of the CCHA.
At the time, the head of the AGU issued a recommendation for the council to prohibit the institution of new rights and advantages paid with retroactive effect, with the exception of those resulting from a final court decision. Since then, there have been no new retroactive payments, but extraordinary allocations of resources have been authorized.
When questioned, the CCHA did not provide a projection for the payment of fees in 2026. “The forecast of future values depends directly on the effective collection of fees resulting from court decisions and payments made by the losing parties, which makes it impossible to make accurate estimates in advance”, stated the body.
