Countries share experiences on consensual solutions at international event

On Friday (May 29), the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) and the Portuguese Court of Auditors organized an international meeting on consensual approaches in Lisbon. The objective was to discuss how institutional dialogue, mediation, and consensual solutions can contribute to addressing the complex challenges currently faced by the public sector.

Experts and representatives of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) from Italy, France, the United States, Angola, Portugal, and Brazil attended the event, held at the University of Lisbon. They shared experiences and success cases in which dialogue and consensus-building mechanisms helped prevent prolonged litigation and excessive judicialization, with a positive impact on the quality of services provided to citizens.

At the opening of the event, the President of the TCU, Minister Vital do Rêgo, emphasized the importance of maintaining focus on the public interest. "This is not about negotiating what is non-negotiable or compromising on what is prohibited by the legal order. Rather, it is about finding, within the scope allowed by law, solutions that avoid prolonged litigation, project delays, privatizations, excessive court intervention, and the devaluation of significant public assets," he stated.

Minister Vital do Rêgo then addressed the consolidation of consensual approaches in Brazil and highlighted the cultural shift required by this process. "For a long time, a mistaken perception prevailed that negotiating or even discussing was synonymous with weakness or worse, complacency with private interests," he noted. He underscored that structured dialogue, qualified negotiation and the joint search for solutions produce better, faster, and more sustainable results, which better serve the public interest and citizens, ensuring legal certainty.

Similarly, the President of the Portuguese Court of Auditors, Counselor Filipa Urbano Galvão, reinforced the importance of the meeting and of pursuing less litigious solutions. She emphasized, however, the need to preserve neutrality, impartiality, and independence of the Supreme Audit Institutions. "We cannot relinquish what defines us, but dialogue is essential. In this regard, meetings such as this are fundamental. We need to understand the complexity of administrative logic and work together to build a culture of good governance," she stated.

Justice Gilmar Mendes, of the Brazilian Supreme Court (STF), addressed the profound transformations brought about by consensual dispute resolution in the public sector. He cited successful agreements in the judicial sphere that show the evolution of Brazilian public law towards reducing the culture of litigation. The Ambassador of Brazil to Portugal, Raimundo Carreiro, and the former Governor of the State of Para, Helder Barbalho, also participated in the opening session.

"Each agreement ratified represents not only the resolution of a controversy, but also the realization of the public interest works resumed, public services preserved, jobs maintained, reduction of accidents and resources that circulate in the economy again. More importantly, it represents the concrete demonstration that oversight can be, at the same time, rigorous and constructive, firm and open to dialogue, technical and responsive to the realities in which it operates. The ultimate beneficiary is the citizen," stated President Vital do Rêgo.

Panels

After the opening, the program included two technical panels. In the first, participants discussed how institutional dialogue within public administration can build solutions to complex problems. Experiences from the French, Portuguese, and Brazilian Supreme Audit Institutions were presented.

The second panel addressed consensual dispute resolutions as a tool for achieving legal certainty and predictability. Representatives from Italy, the United States, Portugal, and Brazil presented relevant cases related to the topic.

Minister Jorge Oliveira delivered the closing remarks, with a presentation that detailed the consensual solution system in the TCU and the importance of collaborative work among audit institutions.

The event received institutional support from the Embassy of Brazil in Portugal.