The Senate Ethics Council exists on paper and costs taxpayers real money, but…
By Hotspotnews
Petitions accusing Senate President Davi Alcolumbre of prevarication for sitting on impeachment requests against STF Justice Alexandre de Moraes have been received. Official records list at least one of them, PCE 19/2026, as “in tramitação.” Its actual status is “awaiting designation of commission members.” That is the same holding pattern reported for other representations against Alcolumbre and other senators. The last recorded meeting of the Conselho de Ética e Decoro Parlamentar was in July 2024. More than two years of inactivity followed.
This is not a technical delay. It is institutional paralysis. The Council is supposed to examine complaints of parliamentary misconduct and recommend measures ranging from censure to loss of mandate. Instead it collects filings while the body that should review them remains uninstalled. Public resources continue to fund the structure, the staff support, and the Senate machinery that processes the paperwork. Taxpayers pay for a disciplinary organ that does not discipline.
- The Council is designed with 15 titular members and 15 substitutes, allocated by party blocs according to proportionality.
The most recent published listing names: - Jayme Campos (UNIÃO-MT) as president
- Eduardo Braga (MDB-AM) as vice-president.
- Titular names associated with the blocs include:
- Davi Alcolumbre himself (UNIÃO-AP),
- Renan Calheiros (MDB-AL),
- Marcos do Val, Weverton (PDT-MA),
- Otto Alencar (PSD-BA),
- Omar Aziz (PSD-AM),
- Zenaide Maia (PSD-RN),
- Fabiano Contarato (PT-ES),
- Jorge Kajuru (PSB-GO),
- Magno Malta (PL-ES),
- Jorge Seif (PL-SC),
- Dr. Hiran (PP-RR).
Several substitute slots are listed as vacant. Alcolumbre appearing on the roster of the very council that would judge a complaint against him is an obvious conflict. The deeper problem is that the listed names have not been producing meetings or decisions.
An ethics body that does not meet cannot perform the function for which it was created. Keeping it on the books while it sits idle wastes public money and undermines the claim that the Senate polices its own members. If the accusations of omission on impeachment requests have merit, they should be examined promptly. If they lack merit, they should be dismissed promptly. Leaving them in administrative limbo serves neither accountability nor efficiency.
This is an urgent institutional matter. The Senate should either install the Council, designate the remaining members, and begin work, or stop pretending the mechanism exists. Taxpayers should not fund a ghost committee.
#SenadoFederal #ConselhoDeEtica #DaviAlcolumbre #Accountability #TaxpayersFirst
Sources: Senate legislative activity records for PCE 19/2026; official CEDP composition listings; contemporaneous reporting on the Council’s last meeting in July 2024 and subsequent lack of installation.