"Shocked," president of AMB criticizes CNJ's action.

Bahia 247

The Court of Justice of Bahia (TJ-BA) has gained an ally in its attempt to shed its reputation as the worst in Brazil and its perceived "serious" situation, according to a preliminary audit report conducted by the National Council of Justice's (CNJ) Inspectorate.

In a press conference in Salvador, the president of the Brazilian Association of Magistrates (AMB), Nelson Calandra, stated that the CNJ (National Council of Justice) "is trying to show its true colors" and also criticized the disclosure of irregularities to the media.

"Brazil is going through a phase characterized by the publicity surrounding the actions of the CNJ (National Council of Justice). The CNJ is a new body that seeks to assert its identity and show its purpose. But there are situations that should not be disclosed, at the risk of people losing their lives or what we all hold most dear: our name and identity. We cannot release a preliminary report without investigating its contents."

The alleged surplus in the payment of multimillion-dollar court-ordered debts by the TJ-BA (Court of Justice of Bahia) is seen by the president of the AMB (Brazilian Association of Magistrates) as a "calculation error" on the part of the CNJ (National Council of Justice) ombudsman. According to Calandra, the accusation of a surplus in court-ordered debt payments resulted from failures by all three branches of government.

"The payment of court-ordered debts is a murky area because the calculations are complex. How could there be a surplus of half a billion reais if the entire state of Bahia only paid R$ 14 million? We judges have to pay extra attention to the calculations. The problem is that lawyers, judges, and prosecutors usually don't have much familiarity with mathematics. It's a great shame for Brazil that the Executive and Legislative branches always prolong their debts. It's a disgrace to take ten or twelve years to pay amounts that are admittedly owed."

The president of AMB also criticized the lack of communication between the federal and state levels of the Judiciary when he spoke about the huge disparity between the information in the CNJ's preliminary report and the data from the Bahia court.

"From the perspective of whoever wrote the report, those facts [contained in the document] exist. But they have justification. In the case of the calculations, for example, the TCU [Federal Court of Accounts] doesn't know if there is res judicata or not, or if the party appealed or not," he said in an article published in Bahia Notícias.

Like most judges in the state, Calandra pointed to the lack of investment from the federal government as one of the main shortcomings of the TJ-BA (Court of Justice of Bahia), the deficit – which he says reaches 40% – in the number of magistrates, and stated that widespread accusations generate "discouragement in the judiciary." According to him, in 2012, throughout Brazil, 538 magistrates abandoned their positions.

To conclude, the president of AMB expressed his perplexity at the audit being conducted by the CNJ in the Bahia court and offered his solidarity to his colleagues.

"I was shocked when the CNJ [National Council of Justice] said it was going to conduct an inspection in Bahia, that Bahia was the target, because I didn't think any of this was appropriate. If there is a failing among the magistrates of Bahia, it is often the result of a lack of adequate working conditions. The fact that we [the AMB] are speaking out publicly is not due to rivalry [with the CNJ] but rather to end this perception that Bahia is the worst place in Brazil."

Among the 'serious' problems found by the agency's inspector general, Minister Francisco Falcão, in addition to the court-ordered payments, is the discovery of "ghost employees".