Presidency’s Ethics Commission punished more Bolsonaro ministers than Lula’s

The Public Ethics Commission (CEP) of the Presidency of the Republic archived all processes involving members of the government of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT), but applied eight punishments to former ministers of Jair Bolsonaro (PL) throughout 2023. The survey was released by CNN Brazil this Friday (29).

The president’s advisory body aims to ensure that federal public authorities respect the Code of Conduct for Senior Federal Administration. The penalties imposed by the Commission range from warning and censure to indication of dismissal or investigation of disciplinary transgression by the General Comptroller of the Union (CGU). The Commission’s work is considered “the provision of a relevant public service” and is not remunerated.

Among Bolsonaro’s former ministers who received punishments are Abraham Weintraub (Education) and Ricardo Salles (Environment). Bolsonaro’s two former assistants received the so-called “ethical censure” as punishment – ​​a type of public reprimand for the conduct of an authority, a stain on the CV, but which does not prevent them from holding new public positions.

According to the collegiate, Weintraub committed ethical misconduct for having expressed “offense to the image of Paulo Freire” and “attacks on authorities and higher education institutions”. Weintraub began to be investigated by the Presidency’s Ethics Commission after the release of images of a ministerial meeting on April 22, 2020, when the former minister, when talking about corruption in Brasília, said he would send “bums to jail, starting with STF”. Weintraub left the role in June of the same year.

Salles was punished for a series of trips he made to São Paulo, his electoral stronghold, with public money. According to him, the CEP “has become a place to attack Bolsonarists”.

Gilson Machado, former Minister of Tourism, and secretaries Mário Frias, now federal deputy for São Paulo, and Fabio Wajngarten were also penalized in other processes.

From the current Lula government, the Ethics Commission analyzed cases involving ministers Camilo Santana (Education), Margareth Menezes (Culture), Juscelino Filho (Communications) and Alexandre Silveira (Mines and Energy). Another representation was against the former president of Caixa, Rita Serrano. All cases were archived.

Minister Camilo Santana was investigated for allegedly committing an ethical breach “resulting from his failure to dismiss the rector of a federal university”. The board understood that there was a lack of materiality for punishment. The minister did not comment on the decision.

Minister Margareth Menezes was the target of an investigation into the “use of the Ministry of Culture’s institutional social networks for political and personal promotion purposes”. Also archived due to lack of materiality.

There was also a lack of materiality for action against Juscelino Filho, who was being investigated for having gone to a horse auction in São Paulo using a Brazilian Air Force (FAB) plane.

The CNN Brasil survey showed that 672 processes were analyzed throughout 2023. Most of them conflict of interest queries.