Pension deficit stalls salary adjustment for civil servants.

Sergipe 247 – Raised by the civil servants' unions, the issue of the Executive's pension deficit has entered the agenda of acting governor Jackson Barreto (PMDB). This Wednesday (12), he met with the Attorney General of the State Public Ministry (MPE), Orlando Rochadel, to discuss the matter. The deficit in the payment of pensions, in the state structure of the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches, in addition to the MP and the State Court of Auditors, this year, will reach R$ 706 million.

The unions are demanding that each institution assume responsibility for paying the payroll of its respective retirees. In their view, this would alleviate the state's financial burden and allow for the salary adjustments demanded by various categories of public employees. The Executive branch's payroll is currently twice the state's net current revenue.

The Attorney General of the Public Prosecutor's Office, Orlando Rochadel, informed that the agency is willing to contribute to the State Government. "The Public Prosecutor's Office will not shy away from participating in this fiscal adjustment movement. We will study the financial impact of the return of the pension contribution to our institution," he said.

In this Thursday’s edition (13) of the Correio de Sergipe newspaper, journalist André Barros also addresses this issue and explains how this process of worsening of the pension deficit of the State institutions took place.

Read the full column:

Powers without fiscal balance

The pension deficit in the Sergipe state government's payroll is projected to exceed R$700 million this year. And this financial contribution will once again come from the Executive branch's coffers, as agreed upon some years ago when all state retirees began to be funded by a single source: the Executive branch itself.

At that time, the Legislative Assembly, the Court of Justice, the Court of Auditors, and the State Public Prosecutor's Office could hardly stay within the limits set by the Fiscal Responsibility Law. These branches of government always spent more than their generous budgets allowed. And for this reason, the State of Sergipe ended up facing serious problems obtaining, in Brasília, the certificates that would enable the transfer of funds from the Union through agreements and loans. 

At that time, the situation was very tense, almost chaotic. The leaders of these branches of government tried to comply in an attempt to help the state, but they almost never managed to fulfill their duties. They always exceeded their allocated percentages. Hence, the idea arose to bring the heavy payroll of retirees under the control and payment of the Executive branch.

Not because it was an exemplary power in terms of controlling its spending, but simply because of its budgetary leeway compared to the others. And so it remained over the last few years. In this mathematical equation, the branches of government controlled and reduced their costs, since their retirees were being paid from "account 00". And the governors, in turn, even when dissatisfied, took advantage of this to balance the rules of the Fiscal Responsibility Law and obtain their certificates from the Union. Furthermore, with this scheme regarding pensions, the governors in office also managed to circumvent public servants when it came to salary adjustments on their base date, arguing that they were already at the so-called "prudential limit." They were at a critical point, to the point of not being able to renew these certificates and losing the transfer of federal funds, such as those from Proinveste.

Now, this tactic has been discovered and carefully evaluated by the unions, who are demanding a return to the old rules. Each branch of government should pay its own bills and its own retirees and pensioners. In their view, the stalling phase is over. And there is room for salary adjustments.

With information from ASN/ Photo: Marcelle Cristinne/ASN