Ibama: AGU releases BRL 29 billion in fines – 03/21/2023 – Environment

The attorney general of the Union, Jorge Messias, approved this Monday (20) opinions that allow the collection of BRL 29.1 billion in environmental fines applied by Ibama that were barred by the Jair Bolsonaro government (PL), on the grounds of prescription.

Last year, the ex-president of Ibama Eduardo Bim understood that these penalties were invalid for interpreting that certain dispatches in the processes do not interrupt the counting of deadlines for limitation.

At the time, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office with Ibama warned that these understandings could result in the extinction of 183,000 notices of infraction, equivalent to 84% of the sanctioning processes opened at Ibama.

In the opinions that were approved by Messias, the AGU states that the acts are capable of interrupting the prescription of the punitive claim, contrary to what the president of Ibama understood under Bolsonaro.

The documents were prepared by the Federal Sub-Attorney General for Debt Collection and Recovery and by the Legal Consultancy of the Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.

These opinions also define that “among the acts capable of interrupting the prescription of the punitive claim are, by way of example, the instructive technical opinion, the carrying out of an inspection, contradicting or any other essential diligence for the resolution of the process, including the precautionary measures that maintain a causal link with the infraction”.

When approving the understandings, Messias said that “the environmental infraction cannot compensate financially”.

“At this time when humanity is facing an existential threat, with the growing climate emergency, the AGU could not fail to fulfill its role of providing legal security for one of the central axes of environmental protection: the accountability of those who harm the environment and place the future of the planet is at risk,” he said.

Last year, the Sheet revealed that the offensive for the invalidation of environmental fines was added to other initiatives of the Eduardo Bim administration at Ibama.

On March 13, 2022, a report showed that a document from the agency itself pointed to the risk of prescription of more than 5,000 notices of environmental infraction drawn up in the Bolsonaro government, due to the inability to process the records for submission to trial.

On the 30th of the same month, another report revealed that an order signed by Bim annuls stages of environmental infringement processes and expands the possibilities of statute of limitations for fines.

The former president of Ibama considered invalid the notification of violators by public notice for the presentation of final allegations in the processes, in cases where it would be possible to locate the accused. He said he was based on case law from the TRFs (Federal Regional Courts), the STJ (Superior Court of Justice) and the AGU.

At the time, technicians pointed out that Bim’s understanding contradicted an opinion of the Federal Attorney of Ibama, in force since 2011, which says that the presentation of final allegations from notification by public notice does not affront articles of the law that regulates the administrative process in the public sphere federal.

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