Court pointed out a deficit of R$14.6 billion and irregularities in Rioprevidência; preliminary opinion now goes to final judgment at Alerj
As 2025 accounts of the Cláudio Castro government (PL) in Rio de Janeiro were rejected on Monday (1st), at State Audit Court (TCE). The decision, for three votes to onetook place in a plenary session. The opinion for the disapproval of the accounts will be sent to the Legislative Assembly of Rio de Janeiro (Alerj), responsible for the final decision to approve or reject the former governor’s accounts. The report tries to contact Castro.
On Monday, the counselors resumed the trial that had begun on Thursday (28) and was suspended after a request for review. The vote of the case’s rapporteur, advisor Rodrigo Melo Nascimento, given the previous week, was to approve the accounts with reservations. The reviewer, counselor José Gomes Graciosa, voted to reject the accounts and was accompanied by counselors Marcelo Verdini Maia and Christiano Lacerda.
The reviewer’s vote points out that the main accounting statements that make up Castro’s accounts “do not reliably reflect the real financial and patrimonial situation of the State of Rio de Janeiro”. According to the vote, the Annual Budget Law (LOA) of 2025 was approved with a deficit of R$14.6 billion, “without the explicit identification of the sources of financing to cover the aforementioned imbalance”.
Graciosa also quotes inconsistencies regarding Rioprevidência investments linked to Banco Master. Castro is investigated by invest resources from the employees’ pension fund in funds linked to the bank.
According to the advisor, the investments remained recorded at the full value of R$1.13 billion without “the due recognition of provision for losses, adjustment to fair value or reduction to recoverable value, even after the extrajudicial liquidation of the institution was declared”. The advisor indicates a “material deficiency” in the internal controls for “risk assessment, measurement, recognition and accounting disclosure”.
“The neglect in dealing with public affairs is evidenced by the repeated non-compliance with the determinations issued by this Court in previous financial years, a circumstance that is again verified in the period under analysis. It appears, therefore, that the decisions handed down by this Court of Auditors throughout both terms of office of Mr. Cláudio Bomfim de Castro e Silva were systematically disregarded by the State Government, without any plausible justification being presented for such conduct”, states the counselor.
Judgment of appeals at the TSE
The presented by former governor of Rio de Janeirofor the former president of the State Legislative Assembly Rodrigo Bacellar (União-RJ) and by Electoral Public Ministry.
Resources ask clarifications on points of the decision that condemned Castro for abuse of political and economic power in the 2022 elections and made him ineligible until 2030. Motions for clarification are used to request clarifications about omissions, contradictions or obscurities in judicial decisions, with little chance of reversing a conviction.
In the trial ruling, the TSE recorded Castro’s ineligibility for eight years and failed to formalize the revocation of the diploma, citing that it was “harmed” by the resignation. For the Electoral Public Ministry, the absence of this sanction could create an “incentive” for the punishment to be avoided.
