Brasília - The Brazilian equivalent of the bipartisan watchdog Government Accountability Office, the "Tribunal de Contas da União" (TCU), will have the task of monitoring the situation in the Judiciary branch now that the Supreme Court has outlawed nepotism there. One of the first things that will happen is administrative action by the TCU against any courts that do not immediately cut off the salaries of relatives of judges who have not passed civil service exams.

It is estimated that there are more than 1,800 relatives of judges on court payrolls around the country. Before the Supreme Court ruling yesterday, some 700 of them had gotten court injunctions allowing them to remain in their jobs, receiving their salaries. According to the Chief Justice, Nelson Jobim, all those injunctions are now null. The relatives must go and if they don't the judges in the courts where they are employed will be held administratively responsible, declared Jobim, adding that besides the TCU, the government legal department (Ministerio Publico) will be put into action to ensure that the Supreme Court ruling is complied with.

Translation: Allen Bennett