The Jair Bolsonaro (PL) government is studying the possibility of raising the maximum salary for a Federal Police delegate to the ceiling for civil servants, currently at R$ 39,293.92 — the same as a minister of the STF (Supreme Federal Court).
According to government officials participating in the negotiations, the values have not yet been closed, and it is likely that the definitions will only take place in January. It will be necessary to accommodate police demands within what is made available in the 2022 Budget.
The Ministry of Justice even asked for a reserve of R$2.9 billion to implement the readjustment for the federal government’s police corporations — among them the PF, PRF (Federal Highway Police) and Depen (National Penitentiary Department).
However, the 2022 Budget Rapporteur, Deputy Hugo Leal (PSD-RJ), allocated a smaller amount, of R$ 1.7 billion, for salary increases. Therefore, the government is now analyzing what fits in that space.
The readjustment request was made directly by Bolsonaro, after the rapporteur resisted the inclusion of the budget reserve. The president seeks to maintain support among members of his electoral base as the calendar for the 2022 dispute for the Planalto draws near.
Today, PF delegates earn between R$ 23,693 and R$ 30,937 and, with the restructuring, maturities would range from R$ 28,889 to R$ 39,293. Therefore, the increase under analysis would be up to 27%.
The increase would be well above the official accumulated inflation, measured by the IPCA (Extended National Consumer Price Index), which has been 19.1% since January 2019 — when the police had the last adjustment.
A senator or deputy, for example, earns R$33,763 per month. The President of the Republic receives R$ 30,934.70 —Bolsonaro, however, accumulates other benefits and receives R$ 41.6 thousand per month.
Members of the public service are able to receive amounts above the STF ceiling because resources such as housing allowance, education allowance and day care allowance, for example, may be outside this limit.
This year, Congress discussed the inclusion of part of the benefits in the salary cap, but the proposal did not go ahead.
The police almost had no indication of readjustment next year, because the Ministry of Economy had sent a request to reserve the resources, but without pointing out a budget compensation.
The situation generated a dispute within the government and in Congress, and made members of the Ministry of Justice, in particular Minister Anderson Torres, spend the weekend in meetings to unlock the proposal.
When the government’s supporters of the readjustment realized that they could have lost their share of the Budget and called for Bolsonaro, the negotiations advanced. The president called and made the request for adjustment to the rapporteur.
The categories are part of Bolsonaro’s support base, who is expected to run for re-election. According to Datafolha, he appears in second in voting intentions, with 22%, against 48% of former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), in a first-round scenario.
The last installment of salary adjustment granted to police officers came into effect in early 2019, under a law approved during the Michel Temer (MDB) administration.
as showed the leaf, however, one million public servants have not been readjusted for five years. These are categories that are at the base of the salary pyramid in the federal Executive and had the last increase on January 1, 2017.
The government even studied the possibility of granting raises for all careers in an election year. However, given the lack of resources, it was quickly necessary to choose a few categories, with preference for those closer to Bolsonaro.
The request to benefit the police came from the president at the time, according to reports. The calculation made by Planalto is that, if all employees were readjusted, the percentage would be so low that the political gain would be zero.
Even so, the strategy of giving readjustment to a few generated protests from other careers that are part of the elite of the federal Executive’s civil service.
This Tuesday (21), Federal Revenue auditors, for example, began a movement to hand over positions after the government and allies had cut the agency’s resources.
“The budget cut in the Revenue will be used to fund an increase in the number of police officers,” said Kleber Cabral, president of Sindifisco (National Union of Tax Auditors for Revenue).
At least 20 auditors have already asked for their resignation, including the holders and substitutes for the supervisory teams.
In addition to the cut in resources for the operation of the Revenue in 2022, auditors protest against the lack of regulation of the efficiency bonus for the category.
Auditors receive the efficiency bonus since 2017, after the instrument was instituted by law. But the legal provision is for it to vary according to the agency’s productivity.
Today, there is no regulation on this fluctuation, and auditors demand a government act or decree for the change to come out of the paper.
In order to be variable, says Cabral, the amounts foreseen in the Budget would have to increase to the maximum amount foreseen in bonuses for the category — which represents R$ 400 million more than expected today.
Revenue’s monthly salaries are R$ 11,684.39 for newcomers to the position of tax analyst. As with the PF, the remuneration is far from the average gain on admission to the Brazilian private sector (which does not exceed R$2,000). At the top of their careers, the remuneration of auditors reaches R$ 30,303.62.
Dissatisfaction with the increase in police officers reaches other categories.
Fábio Faiad, president of Sinal (National Union of Central Bank Employees), says that the measure would bring an unfair asymmetry because the starting salaries of federal police officers would be higher than the values at the end of their careers for BC employees.
Bolsonaro seeks the increases for the police while being investigated by the PF in inquiries opened by the STF. In the most recent, the poll aims at a false association made by the president between the AIDS virus and the Covid-19 vaccine, during a weekly broadcast on social networks.
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