Brazil's federal comptroller, the Controladoria-Geral da União (CGU), has ordered the Advocacia-Geral da União (AGU), the office of government attorneys, to hand over within 30 days detailed data on the court-awarded legal fees (honorários de sucumbência) paid to its civil servants. The decision grants a request from the watchdog NGO Transparência Brasil, which will be allowed to access the material. The news was reported by G1 on Thursday (27) and confirmed by the Painel column of Folha de S.Paulo.
The sums involved are large. In 2025, sucumbência fees paid to AGU members reached R$ 6.1 billion, the highest figure on record, according to G1. Around 12,000 public lawyers received the payments. The money comes from losing parties in lawsuits won by the federal government and is treated as a top-up on top of regular salaries.
AGU appeal rejected
In May, the CGU had already granted the NGO access to the data, answering a request filed under Brazil's Freedom of Information Law (Lei de Acesso à Informação). The AGU appealed. It argued that providing the requested level of detail was unfeasible and that releasing microdata would breach the proportionality principle, allowing mass data mining, cross-referencing with other databases and excessive profiling of its servants' financial lives. The office also said the information was already disclosed proactively at a sufficient level.
The CGU rejected the appeal. In its view, the Freedom of Information Law regulates how public bodies must pursue transparency and accountability, and the government's digital law obliges public entities to publish open data detailed enough to allow social oversight.
"This right aims to guarantee access to data, processed or not, that can be used to produce and transmit knowledge, contained in any medium, support or format," the CGU stated in the decision.
The comptroller also answered the argument that the data was already on public portals. "The mere indication of institutional portals, where public content produced by the Administration is hosted, does not amount to providing the underlying database that feeds the panel of sucumbência attorney fee payments," the text says.
Contacted by G1, the AGU said it would comment on the decision through an official statement. With the appeal rejected, the 30-day deadline for delivering the detailed data now runs, and Transparência Brasil will be able to access and analyze the material.