Punishment for a server in a coup act ranges from a fine to dismissal – 02/06/2023 – Power

States and municipalities in various parts of the country are investigating whether civil servants participated in the invasion of Brasília on January 8. Among the suspects are teachers and municipal guards.

Involvement in coup acts violates local employee statutes, with penalties including suspension, fine or dismissal.

These statutes establish not only the civil servant’s rights and duties, but the consequences for violating them and the way in which the investigation must be carried out.

In Belo Horizonte, for example, the Comptroller General investigates one of the city’s inspectors for participating in coup acts. A three-member committee will hear the server’s defense and evaluate evidence such as images and videos.

Afterwards, the group will decide on the possible infraction. Leonardo de Araújo Ferraz, controller general of the municipality, explains that, in the Statute of the Municipal Public Servant, there is more room for interpretation than in the Penal Code.

One of the possibilities foreseen in the statute of the capital of Minas Gerais is the dismissal in cases of crime against public administration or squandering of assets.

Foz de Iguaçu (PR) is also investigating whether a municipal guard participated in the January 8 invasion. The city’s Secretary of Public Security opened a preliminary investigation, in which the department’s internal affairs department will examine the case.

“He [o servidor] may be subject to penalties ranging from a warning or suspension to possible dismissal. But always valuing the due process of law, the contradictory and full defense”, said Alessandro Chichoski, corregidor of the Secretariat of Public Security.

The city’s statute says that immoral behavior, in addition to harming public coffers and squandering property, are acts that can lead to removal from office.

In the opinion of Marcelo Crespo, coordinator of the ESPM Law course, the possible crimes committed by civil servants on January 8 could include prevarication, damage to public property and attempted coup d’état.

The administrative consequences may vary depending on the number of acts performed, the moments in which they took place and which people participated.

About the penalties, Crespo said that they vary according to career, be it municipal, state or federal. “Undemocratic coup-like conduct and depredation of public property can lead to career expulsion”, continued the lawyer.

He points out that there is no dismissal without an administrative process, except when it comes to commissioned employees —positions in which people are appointed regardless of a public tender. These can be dismissed immediately, according to Crespo.

This doesn’t always happen. This is the case of the head of the ambulance service in Penápolis (SP), who holds a position of trust. He was in Brasilia during the invasion of the Powers and posted videos participating in the demonstrations, but he has not yet been exonerated.

The Attorney General’s Office of the Municipality states that, despite considering what happened in Brasília to be repugnant, it still cannot punish the server. “The municipal servants of Penápolis are governed by the CLT, which establishes rules for dismissal, whether a servant of the effective staff, or called a manager”.

The server has been missing work, which may result in dismissal if it exceeds 30 days without justification, according to the Attorney General’s Office. “A mistake on our part could cost compensation in favor of the person affected”, says the agency.

State employees also face investigations. In Goiás, the participation in the coup acts of a regional coordinator of the State Department of Education (Seduc) is being investigated. According to the folder, a disciplinary administrative process was opened to investigate the responsibilities of the effective servant of the folder.

The rite must follow the rules of the State Public Servant Statute, which establishes which type of infraction generates a warning, suspension or dismissal. In the latter case, it can be applied when there is a crime against the public administration.

In São Paulo, the São Paulo State University (Unesp), on the Botucatu campus, is investigating whether a professor at the Institute of Biosciences participated in the invasions, depredations and threats to the democratic order, according to Trajano Sardenberg, president of the university’s Ethics Committee.

“It is up to the Commission, after extensive study, to establish whether or not there was an ethical infraction; if so, the process is sent to the administrative body of Unesp for appropriate measures, within its statute and the Statute of State Public Servants”, stated the president of the commission.

Among the prohibitions under state law is that of committing acts of sabotage against the public service or committing a crime provided for in the laws relating to security and national defense, in addition to damaging property.

Employees who participated in the depredations contradict principles of acting in the public sector, says Annita Calmon, doctor in administration and specialist in ethics.

“Ideals such as zeal, morality, courtesy and service to the people are necessary values ​​for an excellent public service, but which have not been internalized”, said Calmon.

In the specialist’s view, there was a clear ethical deviation in the conduct of these servers, which is far from being a subjective principle. “Ethics is practical”, said the specialist, “it is not a virtue that can be achieved in the realm of ideas”.

It is up to the ethics committees, she assesses, to promote this set of ideas. “It’s a little ant’s work. It’s no use having the code of ethics and keeping it in a drawer. It’s going to be just another piece of paper,” she said.