Created to monitor and assess violations by prosecutors and prosecutors who National Council of Public Ministry (CNMP) last year increased spending on foreign travel by consultants, assistants, advisers and even guests of the justice. According to collegial rules, travel expenses “on duty” must be shared, but the funds were used to pay for attending courses and seminars abroad. The agency has classified the trips as “international assignments”.
Survey conducted by Estao shows that the CNMP spent BRL 1.3 million on daily rates and airline tickets between January 2022 and February this year US, Portugal, Italy It is Spain. Of this, R$ 1 million was paid for stays to attend courses and seminars the rest was paid for various missions such as signing agreements.
The National Council of Public Ministry spent BRL 1.3 million on per diems and airline tickets to pay for attending courses and seminars abroad. Photo: Disclosure/CNMP
Training events do not require the writing of a thesis or the prior submission of articles, as is typically required in academic activities sponsored by courts and lawrelated schools.
The CNMP has been working with the since 2019 Accademia Juris Rome, with the aim of promoting undergraduate and postgraduate courses. It is a micro company registered in the name and domicile of the Italian lawyer Frederico Penna, in the Italian capital. He has a Brazilian partner. The unit is supported by class units linked to the Brazilian judiciary and parliament.
In September last year, BRL 587,000 was spent on per diems and tickets to Rome for consultants to attend the ‘Crime Victim Protection’ seminar with names from the European country’s law. At least one adviser, Rinaldo Reis, added another week in Rome as a vacation. R$20,000 was spent on daily rates and a further R$27,000 on tickets. According to the CNMP, he paid the difference between the course time and the rest time.
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In the dismissal ordinances for the event, the board members are recalled for an “official assignment”. Auxiliary members, who are prosecutors, lawyers and other agents summoned to the CNMP in Brasília, traveled under the pretense of “accompanying” advisers or even attending the seminar.
The Accademia maintains relationships with Brazilian judges. Advice from the deputy who was in Rome Daniel Carni organizes courses through the entity. The day after the course in the capital, he debated the crisis in Brazilian democracy at the University of Siena, also in Italy.
Between July last year and March this year, Carnio traveled more than a dozen times abroad, at CNMP events and beyond. The consultant came on the recommendation of Supreme Judicial Court (STJ). Previously he was Assistant Judge to the former President of the Court Humberto Martins.
In January 2023, BRL 263,000 was paid as a daily allowance to attend a seminar in Lisbon. The event brought a panel to Portugal to discuss a study on the ethnicracial profile of the Brazilian MP. The project comes from Fundamental Rights Commissionchaired by Council Member Otavio Luiz Rodrigues Jr.., which was reported to the CNMP by the Chamber of Deputies and is a candidate for a position in the STJ for advocacy.
The CNMP also paid BRL 36,800 in per diems and admission tickets to the Minister of the STJ Mauro Campbell, who was in Lisbon. Other ministers declined to attend.
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The departure of consultants and assistants for courses abroad represents a change in the dynamics of the CNMP. In previous years, recorded lower expenses with these trips, the organization took part in international seminars organized in Brazil, sometimes buying tickets for foreign speakers were paid.
Augusto Aras’ assistant went to Washington with an expense of R$ 40,000 paid by the CNMP. Photo: Dida Sampaio/Estadão
political scientist at Getulio Vargas Foundation (FGV) and scholar of the Brazilian judicial system, Raphael Viegas says the CNMP has “made progress on legislative and executive assignments” through regulations and resolutions one example being travel expenses, which he says should bring a return to the body’s core activities of control and inspection.
“There is an extension of the CNMP’s official objectives to include training and capacitybuilding activities, some with leading an international mission for which it was not designed, with funding for travel and accommodation abroad,” he says.
According to Viegas, the authorization to spend on courses “must not only be proven in certificates, but also in the production of knowledge, the publication of articles and interviews”.
In addition to the course trips, the CNMP has sent consultants abroad to work on agreements. At one of these events there was also an invitation to the President of the STJ, Maria Thereza de Assis Mourawhich refused, as the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo showed the information was confirmed by the Estao. It was a trip to Washington to sign an agreement to promote the training of judges and legislators. The CNMP paid an assistant to accompany the Attorney General of the Republic and the President of the Board, Augusto Arasfor 40,000 BRL.
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Maria Thereza de Assis Moura declined an invitation to travel to Washington to sign an agreement to promote the training of judges and MPs. Photo: Disclosure/STJ
On another trip to Costa Rica, for a visit to the InterAmerican Court of Human Rights, in January this year, eight advisers and one special adviser attended the signing of a similar agreement. R$ 177,000 was paid in daily rates and tickets. The Prosecutor of Goiás Carlos Vinicius Alves Ribeiro received R$ 15,000 in per diem allowance for attending the 300th Anniversary Commemorations of the State Ministry of RussiaIn Moscow.
According to political scientists Fabio Kerche, Professor of Political Science at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Unirio), the CNMP “was conceived and created as a kind of external control of the MP, but in fact it is not control as a whole, nor is it external” . He criticizes the formation of a majority in the Council by members of the MPs themselves.
“If you look at the board’s performance indicators, the numbers are very conservative. Punishing a prosecutor is a hurdle race. The most severe penalties are few and often related to nonMP activities. For example, a prosecutor who killed someone,” he says.
Kerche also believes that penalties for prosecutors, when they occur, are not very effective. “If they exist, they are very mild measures. It is very difficult for a citizen who feels disadvantaged by the work of a prosecutor to get an answer from the Council.”
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For the Estao, Frederico Penna explained that “the events of the Accademia Juris as a training center are organized in different places in Europe and Latin America”. “The Accademia organizes its own events, defines programs and venues. In some cases, we also enter into partnerships with universities and institutions,” says Penna. According to him, the coordinators “are also from different countries, underlining the Accademia’s international vision and its uniqueness in proposing courses for a hyperconnected and globalized world”.
Through the press office, the CNMP explains that “Carnio, as President of the National Training Unit of the Public Ministry (UNCMP), has as an institutional mission the creation of opportunities for improvement through activities and courses in Brazil and abroad the members and officials of the Public Prosecutor’s Office”.
Regarding the trips of Otavio Luiz Rodrigues, Rinaldo Reis and Carlos Vinicius, the CNMP has not responded to the report until the publication of this report.