The most paid retroactive benefits in the state and federal Public Prosecutor’s Offices between 2023 and 2024 were additional benefits for length of service (R$418 million), differences in allowances due to readjustments (R$404 million) and irreducibility (R$348.3 million), according to a survey by Transparência Brasil andRepública.org.
These payments refer to amounts that the justice system bodies themselves decided should have been paid to their members in previous years. Most of them are penduricals used to boost salaries and exceed the constitutional ceiling.
According to the organizations’ study, the 27 public prosecutors’ offices with available data distributed at least R$2.9 billion in retroactive payments to 60% of their active prosecutors in the period.
The Public Prosecutors’ Offices do not disclose data in a standardized way that describes which benefit each retroactive payment posted on their members’ paychecks refers to.
For example, the champion of retroactive payments, MP-RJ, distributed R$812 million in “RRA”, alluding to gains from legal or administrative actions. However, there is no information explaining which decision each of these payments refers to.
The main retroactive payments were identified using the standardization methodology developed by TB’s DadosJusBr project, which made it possible to group equal benefits from a universe of 303 different descriptions.
There are retroactive payments both in reparation to members (for career changes or economic plans) and with the blatant purpose of personal enrichment – such as compensatory leave, created in 2023.
Compensatory leave allows civil servants with an accumulation of work to be granted time off, with the possibility of converting these days into cash compensation. According to a TB study, the penduricalho cost the MPs R$687.4 million in 2024, while the retroactive costs of the penduricalho add up to R$12.4 million in two years.
The amounts are likely to increase in the coming years, as other MP units have started to authorize the retroactive payment of the compensatory leave – as is the case of the MP-RS, which authorized it in a package along with the reincorporation of the premium leave, and the MP-SP, which is due to pay R$1 million for the pendurical to each member for the period from 2015 to 2024.
The panorama of retroactive payments in the MPs shows a clear lack of control in the governance, control and transparency of these benefits, especially since their granting is validated through administrative channels. Of the total paid out between 2023 and 2024, R$2.6 billion (89%) was authorized by internal decisions, with no associated judicial determination.
In view of the volume and the lack of effective external control, the National Council of Public Prosecutors is discussing a rule similar to Resolution 621 of the National Council of Justice, which makes the payment of retroactive benefits conditional on a final and unappealable court decision. The proposal has been pending since June 2025 and has not yet been considered by the full CNMP.
The measure, even if approved, is insufficient, as it would not affect payments already authorized administratively or prevent the continuation of internally recognized advantages.
In this sense, the organizations express support for the recent actions of the Federal Supreme Court that could lead to the restriction of the payment of retroactive and other pendurical benefits. On February 19, 2026, Justice Flávio Dino prohibited the “recognition of any new installment relating to an alleged past right” (RCL 88319), which in practice prevents the creation of new retroactive payments.
On February 23 of the same year, Justice Gilmar Mendes ordered “the interruption of all payments based on administrative decisions and secondary normative acts”, which potentially includes retroactive payments (ADI 6606). República.org and Transparência Brasil therefore advocate that these decisions be upheld by the full STF.
