Misleading: It is a misleading tweet that says that President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) increased his own salary and that of his ministers by up to 69% and that the media had little impact on the fact. In fact, active-duty soldiers who occupy executive positions were able to accumulate the remuneration for both functions thanks to an ordinance published in 2021. With that, Bolsonaro, who is a reserve captain, had a 7.55% increase in his remuneration.
Investigated Content: tweet which deals with the salary increase of President Jair Bolsonaro and ministers by up to 69% and with criticism of the press for having little repercussion on the subject.
where it was published: Twitter
Completion of Proof: A tweet that says that President Jair Bolsonaro (PL) increased his own salary and that of his ministers is misleading and that the media had little impact on the fact. In fact, active-duty soldiers who occupy executive positions were able to accumulate the remuneration for both functions thanks to an ordinance from the Ministry of Finance published in 2021. With it, some soldiers obtained a gain of more than 60%, but Bolsonaro received an increase. of 7.55%. Although an increase has been granted, the measure is for 2021, but in the post there is no reference to the date, leading to erroneous analysis.
In the investigated post, comments like “What nonsense!! And Guedes wanting to loot the worker’s FGTS” or “go see the corporate card is not enough” demonstrate the mistake of some readers in the interpretation of the content, published without context.
The post also criticizes the journalistic coverage on the subject, as if there had been no repercussions. However, at the time of the increase, several vehicles addressed the issue, such as Estadão, Folha de S. Paulo, State of Mines, Brazilian Mail, ValueCNN and G1.
The Ministry of Economy informed, in a note, that there is no forecast of readjustment for the president and the first echelon of the government in 2022.
For Comprova, misleading it is content taken from the original context and used in another so that its meaning is altered; that uses inaccurate data or that leads to an interpretation different from the author’s intention; content that confuses, with or without the deliberate intent to cause harm.
Scope of publication: Comprova investigates the most far-reaching suspicious content on social networks. The tweet investigated here had almost 20,000 interactions until May 20, including likes, retweets and comments.
What the author of the publication says: The author of the publication’s Twitter is closed to direct messages, but he was located on Instagram, the channel through which Comprova sent questions about the post. Until the verification was published, he did not respond.
How do we check: When consulting Google with the keywords “Bolsonaro” + “increase” + “salary” + “69%”, the search returned with journalistic content from 2021 that dealt with the subject, both about the ordinance that made the increase possible and the repercussions with the president himself.
The report also sought out the Ministry of Economy to find out if the content of the tweet was true, if there is a forecast of a salary increase for Bolsonaro and the ministers in 2022 and who is responsible for granting the readjustment to the occupants of these positions.
In addition, the team sought data on the remuneration of Bolsonaro and his ministers on the Transparency Portal. A request was also sent to the Ministry of Citizenship to obtain official data on the salaries of the minister, Ronaldo Vieira Bento, but there was no response.
Comprova still tried to contact the author of the publication, also without success.
Double roof concierge
Contrary to what the post supposes, the ordinance that increases the salary of Bolsonaro and his ministers is not recent and was not published this year. It is about Ordinance SGP/SEDGG/ME No. 4,975, of April 29, 2021which provides for the application of the salary cap for public servants.
The limit of remuneration for federal public offices cannot exceed the remuneration received by ministers of the Federal Supreme Court (STF), which is currently R$ 39,293.32. Therefore, no server could have a salary greater than this amount. The constitutional ceiling, according to the understanding of the STF itselfmust be applied to the gross amount of the civil servant’s remuneration.
However, the ordinance allowed a new calculation of the salary limit. In the constitutionally accepted hypotheses of accumulation of public offices, the ceiling would be calculated separately in relation to each of the bonds. That is, under legal conditions, the limit earned is relative to each role and not to each server.
One of the conditions assigned by the text is the accumulation between a retired or military bond in inactivity with a commission position, elective position or constitutionally admitted public job. Therefore, a retired general who is also a government minister receives his remuneration for both contracts, with the salary cap applied separately.
And it was from the publication of this ordinance that Bolsonaro managed to adjust his salary, as captain of the reserve, and also promoted an increase estimated, at the time, of up to 69% in the remuneration of his team. In addition to the president, vice-president Hamilton Mourão, military ministers and a group of about a thousand federal servants, who had a discount on their remuneration to respect the constitutional ceiling, began to be covered by the measure.
As reported by Value at the time, the ordinance would allow monthly payments that, depending on the authority, would exceed R$ 66 thousand. The biggest salary jump projected last year was for the Chief Minister of the Civil House, Luiz Eduardo Ramos. The government would stop making a monthly discount of BRL 27,000, raising the remuneration to BRL 66,400 – an increase of 69%. By the same projections, Bolsonaro would have the smallest correction, of 6%, and his salaries would increase from R$39,300 to R$41,600.
The document was signed by Leonardo José Mattos Sultani, secretary of the Special Secretariat for Debureaucratization, Management and Digital Government, of the Ministry of Economy.
Salary of the president and his ministers
According to article 49 of the Federal Constitution of 1988, it is the exclusive competence of the National Congress to set the salaries of the president, vice president and government ministers. This process takes place through legislative decrees. In addition, senators and federal deputies must annually judge the accounts rendered by the Chief Executive.
The last definition on the remuneration of the head of state took place in 2014 through the Legislative Decree No. 277. The act set the president’s monthly allowance at R$ 30,934.70. The value is the same for the vice president and the ministers. The text also indicated that the Executive Branch will regulate, in accordance with its powers, the effects arising from the application of the decree.
In response to the Comprova Project, the Ministry of Economy clarified that there is no forecast of salary readjustments for the president and the first echelon this year. The folder also stated that the readjustment to functionalism is under analysis.
On the Transparency Portal, the amount of R$ 30,934.70 is declared as gross basic remuneration because the amount involves mandatory deductions, such as withholding income tax and social security contribution. However, there are other benefits received by the president, such as housing allowance, and even occasional compensation such as the Christmas bonus.
Currently, the office of the Presidency of the Republic has six soldiers who are retired or in reserve. Therefore, they are paid separately for each position. They are: Jair Bolsonaro (President of the Republic), Hamilton Mourão (Vice-President of the Republic), Augusto Heleno (Head of the Institutional Security Office), Luiz Eduardo Ramos (Head of the General Secretariat of the Presidency of the Republic), Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira (Minister of Defence) and Ronaldo Vieira Bento (Minister of Citizenship).
According to the Transparency Portal, Jair Bolsonaro receives a gross basic salary of R$11,324.96 for being a reserve captain. Before the ordinance, he no longer received R$ 2,966.34. Using the average remuneration received by the president in recent months, the president had an increase in remuneration of 7.55% – a slightly higher rate than estimated at the time the measure was announced.
The table below shows a relationship between the positions and the increase in remuneration with the concierge. The database used was the Transparency Portal, in which the last civilian salary (April 2022) and the last military salary (November 2021) available on the platform were analyzed. The values may vary a little from month to month due to occasional remuneration and mandatory discounts, which explains the small differences between the data cited in the articles of May of last year and the current data from the portal.
In relation to Ronaldo Vieira Bento, the standard salary for the military position he holds (1st Lieutenant of the Brazilian Army Reserve) was used, as updated information on the subsidy was not found on the portal. Comprova asked the Ministry of Citizenship about the minister’s remuneration, but there was no response until the verification was published. The other data can be consulted here: Jair Bolsonaro; Hamilton Mourão; Augusto Heleno; Luiz Eduardo Ramos and Paulo Sergio Nogueira de Oliveira.
repercussion
The post investigated here also suggests that there was little repercussion on the readjustment in the press. In fact, the matter was publicized by several vehicles, such as Estadão, Folha de S. Paulo, State of Mines, Brazilian Mail, ValueCNN and G1on the occasion of the edition of the ordinance, and also afterwards, in the unfolding.
There were questions about the ordinance in the National Congress and reports, such as that of the wow and State of Mines, on the reaction of parliamentarians to the super-salaries at the top of the government. The Executive, in turn, attributed the measure to a decision of the Federal Supreme Court (STF). Bolsonaro himself also used the argument in one of his lives, in early June of last year, and which was reported by the press.
Despite this, the post still confused internet users who, due to the lack of context in the tweet, believed that it was current news, as indicated by some screenshots (print 1, print 2, print 3) collected by Comprova.
why do we investigate: Comprova investigates suspicious content that went viral on social media about the covid-19 pandemic, public policies of the federal government and presidential elections. The investigated content refers to Jair Bolsonaro, pre-candidate for reelection, and out-of-context information about the president or others who intend to run for the seat at Palácio do Planalto do not contribute to the country’s democratic process. Voters have the right to make their choice based on correct data.
Other checks on the topic: Presidential elections are a frequent topic of disinformation content. This week, Comprova demonstrated, among other misleading publications, that series on hunger in Jornal Nacional aired before PT came to powerthe lack of context video about flaws already fixed in the pollsand even though Fies was created in the FHC government, not in the Lula administration is that Video deceives about BNDES loans in Lula government. The author of the post has already been the subject of other Comprova checks, such as the one that proved to be misleading the tweet accusing Bolsonaro of ending Bolsa Atleta.
Investigated by A Gazeta and Metrópoles. Verified by Rádio Band News FM, Estadão, SBT and SBT News.
Source: CNN Brasil
