Minas Gerais fails to pay R$ 287 million in court-ordered payments.

Mines 247 - In 2016, the Minas Gerais state government managed to transfer only 64% of the R$ 814,6 million earmarked for paying off debts related to court-ordered payments. To try and balance the budget, the state intends to disburse R$ 924,2 million in 2017 and believes it is possible to pay an amount 75% higher than what it managed to do last year. In 2016, the executive branch transferred approximately R$ 527,6 million to the Minas Gerais Court of Justice (TJMG) for the settlement of court-ordered payments – R$ 287 million of outstanding debts were included in the payment plan presented by the state for 2017.

Currently, the state's debt in court-ordered payments exceeds R$ 3,6 billion, and to eliminate this deficit by 2020, it will be necessary to pay an average of R$ 924,2 million annually for the next four years. These figures, which are not low, could grow even further, considering the increase in court-ordered payments to be registered by the end of the deadline.

Responsible for the Precatório Conciliation Center of the TJMG (Court of Justice of Minas Gerais), Judge Ramom Tácio de Oliveira stated that "precatório debt is problematic because it represents, on the one hand, creditor rights recognized by the Justice system and, on the other hand, state debt that is difficult to resolve due to the scarcity of resources." The interviews for this article were given to the newspaper O Tempo.

According to the government, "the current schedule is being met, although the state is currently going through a financial crisis."

Complementary Law 151/2015 gives states and municipalities the possibility of using up to 70% of judicial deposits related to lawsuits in which they are a party to pay court-ordered debts.

In July 2015, Governor Fernando Pimentel enacted Law 21.720, authorizing the state to use judicial deposits for the payment of court-ordered debts, among other purposes. However, the Supreme Federal Court (STF) suspended the law.

“We can convert 70% of Law 151, but we encountered a series of difficulties and inconsistencies. There were deposits that were not identified,” said the state's attorney general, Onofre Alves Batista. “We weren't going to take it from the school budget, or tighten further cuts to allocate funds from court-ordered payments when we expected to use the deposits,” he added.

The lawyer stated that only a "tiny" portion of the judicial deposits was used in 2016 to pay court-ordered debts. "We had set aside this missing amount (R$ 287 million) for conversion, but we were unable to finalize it. Since there is the possibility of payment in installments, there will be no losses," he said.