The (Court of Accounts of the Union) created a new benefit to increase the remuneration of employees of the court of accounts by up to 15%, who will be able to earn above the constitutional ceiling for civil servants (currently R$46,400 per month).
The ordinance was signed by the president of the court, minister Vital do Rêgo, and by the vice-president, Jorge Oliveira. The text was published this Thursday (11) in an internal bulletin.
The rule says that the payment will be “strictly compensatory in nature”. The classification allows the amount to be paid above the ceiling and still be free from taxes, such as social security contributions and income tax.
In a note, the TCU states that the new bonus follows the model of measures adopted by higher courts, such as (Superior Court and Justice) and (Superior Labor Court). According to the court, the administrative act is in line with practices of other senior bodies in the Judiciary.
The TCU also says that the measure reaches a limited number of employees and has a budgetary impact compatible with the appropriations approved for the court.
The measure takes advantage of a loophole in the thesis established by the (Supreme Federal Court) to bar the , approved at the end of March. The restriction imposed by the court refers only to members of the Judiciary and the , which leaves room for the continuity of restrictions in the other Powers.
Some of the employees of the court of accounts have been mobilizing in favor of a new penduricamento since last year. A bill to grant the additional amount was approved in Congress on a monthly basis. The text was vetoed by the president ().
The remuneration of TCU employees is made up of the basic salary, external control and performance bonuses and additional qualification, given as a reward for completing additional training courses.
The new badge will be granted to employees who occupy management, leadership and advisory positions in ministers’ offices, prosecutors or technical units. According to internal reports, many of them already receive the civil service cap or even receive discounts from the so-called ceiling reduction. In total, 913 servers should benefit.
The bonus will be 6% to 15% of the total remuneration — that is, it will be calculated not only on the basic salary, but also on the additional salaries already paid. With this, the gross salary can reach R$66,900 per month, of which up to R$8,733 would be the bonus free of any discount.
The amount was called Bonus for Performance of High Technical Complexity, Supervision and Institutional Management, or Gaac.
Although it was defended by a group of civil servants, the creation of the penduricalho caused outrage in another wing of TCU auditors, a body that has harshly criticized the government for the increase in spending (which increases public debt) and also for the frequent maneuvers to increase expenses without affecting fiscal rules.
The new bonus was created one day after the court approved Lula’s government accounts for 2025 with reservations motivated by fiscal management, such as the Budget.
In their justification, Vital do Rêgo and Jorge Oliveira cite the “high relevance, density and expressive volume of demands that are processed annually in this court”, reflected in the average of 6,000 cases filed per year. The text also mentions the TCU’s “high efficiency” in safeguarding public resources and the “significant social and financial return” resulting from external control activities.
For the group against the penduricalho, it is a bonus without plausible justification.
For Gustavo Justino de Oliveira, professor of administrative law at USP and IDP-Brasília, “there is an obvious point of tension” in the rule published by the TCU with the recent decision of the Supreme Court. He draws attention to the fact that it is remuneration linked to the performance of the role and calculated as a percentage of remuneration, but qualified as compensation.
“This structure raises relevant doubts, because the installment appears to remunerate the complexity, responsibility or relevance of the function performed, and not exactly reimburse a specific expense borne by the server”, he stated.
According to him, if this remuneration is treated as an extra-cost installment, “the tension with the STF’s guidance becomes quite significant.”
“Even if it is subject to the ceiling, the discussion remains about the possibility of creating an advantage of this nature by ordinance. The episode reveals that the debate about penduricalhos tends to focus less on the name attributed to the budget and more on its legal and economic substance”, said Oliveira.
Super salaries became the target of the STF throughout this year, after injunctions by court ministers to block payment. In a decision published in February, all bodies were asked to review funds paid and suspend those without a legal basis. Only compensation installments already provided for by law could be outside the ceiling.
The TCU’s new pendant could therefore violate the determination of Dino’s injunction. But the Supreme Court’s thesis of general repercussion, with deliberation by the plenary, was limited only to the Judiciary and the Public Ministry. This leaves room for other public bodies to resume the adoption of penduricalhos.
Salaries above the ceiling are nothing new in the accounting court. As shown by Sheetof people who earned the most per diem for business trips in 2025 in the federal public administration, with figures that reached R$132 thousand in a single month. In total, they received R$2.7 million in daily allowances throughout the year
In addition, they receive payments above the ceiling, with salaries boosted by additional payments such as daily allowances, daily allowances and other compensation payments.
