MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Guidelines set for Brazilian First Lady's expenses

Janja's actions must adhere to public administration principles, the AGU determined

Brazil's Federal Attorney General's Office (AGU) issued an opinion Friday defining guidelines for the role of the president’s spouse, specifically addressing First Lady Rosângela da Silva (Janja) and her expenses.

Prompted by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva's administration’s Civil House amid criticism over Janja’s expenses, the AGU recognizes that the spouse can act voluntarily in the public interest—representing the president symbolically in social, cultural, ceremonial, political, or diplomatic roles—without pay or an official position.

“The president's spouse, in his or her actions in the public interest, has a legal nature of his or her own that derives from the civil bond maintained with the head of state and government. Thus, the spouse plays a symbolic representative role of a social, cultural, ceremonial, political and/or diplomatic nature on behalf of the president,” the AGU maintained.

However, her actions must adhere to public administration principles (legality, impartiality, morality, publicity, efficiency), and she must disclose her public agenda on an official website and report expenses and travel details on the Transparency Portal.

The opinion follows scrutiny over costs for her entourage’s stay in Paris and a business-class trip to Rome, despite her lacking a formal government role.

The AGU stresses accountability for public resource use, though exceptions may apply for security or privacy reasons, aiming to balance Janja’s active role with transparency demands, in addition to providing for the analysis on a case-by-case basis “of the possible incidence of constitutional or legal restrictions on access to information, in situations where there is a need to safeguard the security and/or privacy of the presidential spouse.”

Last week, the Government canceled Janja's participation in New York at the United Nations (UN) 69th session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW). According to local media, Lula's fall in popularity -and Janja's- weighed on the decision.