Readjustment for police officers promised by Bolsonaro could cost R$2.8 billion in an election year

The readjustment promised by President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) to police officers should cost around R$2.8 billion next year, when he intends to run for reelection.

Spending on the project to restructure the careers of the Federal Police, Federal Highway Police and the National Penitentiary Department (Depen) was calculated by the Ministry of Justice. The expense until 2024 is estimated at R$ 11 billion.

Bolsonaro took the field to guarantee the readjustment to these corporations, which are part of its base of supporters, as shown by leaf in November.

The promise comes at a time when careers have, privately, been unsatisfied with Bolsonaro. According to palace assistants, the police complain that, despite being close to the president, they did not benefit during the three years of government, as the military did.

The last increase for federal police officers went into effect on January 1, 2019, but had already been approved by the Michel Temer (MDB) administration.

The Chief Executive addressed this matter in a meeting at Planalto Palace this Tuesday afternoon (14) with the Minister of Justice, Anderson Torres, the General Directors of the Federal Police, Paulo Maiurino, of the Federal Highway Police, Silvinei Marques, and from the Penitentiary Department, Tânia Fogaça.

According to reports from the meeting, there was no final agreement, but police representatives have already started talks with the Economy to see what can be done in terms of salary restructuring.

The teams are in a hurry, as the idea is to reach a value of the financial impact this year, so that it is possible to include the forecast in the 2022 budget proposal, which is still under analysis in the National Congress. Studies on career restructuring, in turn, would be completed next year.

A leaf found that the Ministry of Economy will send the rapporteur of the 2022 Budget, Deputy Hugo Leal (PSD-RJ), an official letter communicating the intention to grant the readjustment, but without detailing yet the benefited careers. The objective is to reserve the space that will be needed to increase salaries.

Of the three corporations, the proposal that is most forwarded is that of Depen, which would have already been built with the Ministry of Economy in recent months. But the idea is that all three restructurings –and readjustments– are announced together.

According to reports from those who follow the discussions, the idea for federal police officers is to implement a standard career staggered promotion every five years. The goal would be to avoid career evasion.

The PRF, on the other hand, would have the most radical change in the career structure, according to the Torres ministry plan, also with a salary impact. In the case of Depen, the idea of ​​transforming the position of federal criminal enforcement agent into a federal criminal police officer, linked to the ministry, completely changed the career.

Despite being dissatisfied with their salary freeze, the federal government’s police officers are among the highest salaries on the Esplanada.

In PF, an agent’s remuneration ranges from R$12,522.50 to R$18,651.79 monthly, according to the Federal Government’s Statistical Panel of Personnel. Delegates earn from R$23,692.74 to R$30,936.91.

In the PRF, maturities range from R$9,899.88 to R$16,552.34 per month. Depen agents, in turn, have remuneration between R$5,572.23 and R$10,357.30, according to panel data.

To grant the readjustment, it is necessary to reserve funds to fund the project to restructure these careers, which still needs to be processed by the Chamber and the Senate.

Congressional officials say spending cuts will need to be made in other areas to accommodate this wage increase in the 2022 spending forecast.

Bolsonaro’s pledge is already facing resistance among lawmakers. Allies, the rapporteur of the 2022 budget piece, Deputy Hugo Leal (PSD-RJ), stated that he will try to reduce the impact of the measure to R$ 1.4 billion.

The rapporteur’s plan is to predict that the readjustment is valid from July. His argument, according to deputies close to Leal, is that Congress needs time to vote on the project for restructuring careers and, given the tightening of public accounts, there is no space to meet the entire request for R$2.8 billion.

Regarding where the resources would come from, the team that formulates the final version of the Budget has said that it is still analyzing how the cut will be made if the government and Congress want to grant the adjustment.

“It’s not good to talk before things happen. But we have a meeting with the economic team. To discuss something that interests all of you,” said the president on Tuesday at an event at Planalto Palace on PRF (Federal Highway Police) actions in roads.

The day before, Torres took corporate directors to a meeting with Economy Minister Paulo Guedes to discuss the salary adjustment.

Delegate, the minister must be a candidate for federal deputy for the Federal District, and guaranteeing the benefit to careers is an important agenda for him in next year’s dispute.

On Tuesday (14), the Minister of Justice said that the values ​​of the readjustments, fiscal impact and other details would be defined together with the economic team. “You have to make the budget forecast. For next year to present a provisional measure,” he said.

The request for the readjustment to be granted via MP, which is effective immediately, faces resistance from economic technicians.

In the assessment of these technicians, a salary adjustment does not meet the requirements of relevance and urgency for the president to sign a measure with the force of law. Despite this, other adjustments to categories of civil servants have already been granted via MP, such as for tax auditors from the Federal Revenue, at the end of 2016.

The economic area also warns that the readjustment will need to adapt to the space defined in the Budget for the measure. Thus, the sooner the salary restructuring takes effect, the smaller the readjustment in percentage terms.

Leal is trying to finalize the accounts to bring the 2022 Budget bill to a vote in Congress by the end of this week. However, there is already pressure for the proposal to be analyzed only next week.

The rapporteur has been pressured by party leaders to guarantee resources for the rapporteur’s amendments, a mechanism created in the 2020 Budget to increase the volume of parliamentary amendments and which has been used to privilege government allies in releasing resources.

Amendment is the way a deputy or senator has to send money from the federal budget for works and projects in his electoral base.

The PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) of the Precatório — which alters the calculation of the ceiling and postpones the payment of judicial debts against which there is no longer any appeal — should release, in total, around R$ 106 billion in expenses next year .

But this amount is already committed to mandatory expenses linked to rising inflation and to Bolsonaro’s promise to raise Brazil’s Aid to at least R$400 a month.

The proposal to readjust the servers is already under study in the government since the middle of the year, approximately. This possibility took on real contours when the government decided to circumvent the ceiling with the PEC.

Initially, the idea was to grant the salary increase to all civil servants, since their salaries have been frozen since the beginning of Bolsonaro’s administration. However, even with the budget slack next year, the government realized that it would not have enough resources to pay for a linear adjustment to all civil servants.

According to reports, the president’s interlocutors understood that granting a readjustment far below inflation, such as 1%, would have a more negative impact than a positive one. Thus, they understood that it would be better to contemplate fewer careers.

The president himself would have asked for priority to police careers, such as the leaf showed in November.

In Dubai, Bolsonaro announced that the government was studying the possibility of readjustment. At the time, I said it would be for all servers. However, Planalto was already working with the possibility of contemplating only police careers, as requested by the president.

Recently, he returned to defend the salary increase for civil servants in an election year. On the last 8th, in an interview, the agent said that the measure would be taken without breaking the spending ceiling.

“It would have [que ser reajuste de] 3%, 4%, 5%, 2%… Let it be 1%. This is the idea. Because we are completing three years in my government without readjustment. Now, the readjustment is not to restore all the inflation, because we don’t have space for that”, Bolsonaro said in an interview to Gazeta do Povo.

If confirmed, this would be another nod from the federal government to police careers. The only competition held during the federal government was for the Federal Police and Federal Highway, with 3,000 vacancies. Carried out this year, it was announced in 2020, still under the management of then-minister André Mendonça.

In September, the Ministry of Justice also launched a special housing program for police officers. Habite Seguro had BRL 100 million in 2021, covering police officers who receive up to BRL 7,000 thousand per month.