The president of the Court of Justice of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Judge Henrique Carlos Figueira, in response to a request from the State Attorney General’s Office (PGE-RJ), annulled the decision of the 4th Civil Court of Petrópolis, in the mountainous region, which blocked BRL 2 billion to meet the recovery works for the rains in Petrópolis.
In the decision, the judge highlighted that there was no need to block funds to allocate resources to finance public works, since this initiative depends on the State’s bidding process. He also recalled “that this amount could not be blocked, as it came from the Cedae auction, and that it should be used to finance numerous works throughout the state and not just in one municipality”.
Judge Henrique Carlos Figueira also stated that the works in Petrópolis are intended for urbanization in the municipality, which is not the responsibility of the state. And that the decision of the lower court blocked half of the existing balance in the account, contrary to the importance of the other 92 municipalities in the state.
According to the judge, “it is not credible to dump in Petrópolis an amount equivalent to almost 10% of the annual state budget, in the current fiscal year, after deducting the earmarked funds”, he concluded.
