The same document also communicates the resignation of the position of judge-counselor of the Court of Auditors, also accepted by the head of state, according to a note from the press services of the Presidency.
Exalgina Gambôa resigned this Wednesday morning to the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, informing the Superior Council of the Judiciary, one day after being accused of extortion, embezzlement and corruption, in a process which also contains her son Hailé Vicente da Cruz, also accused.
On Monday, the President, João Lourenço, announced that he had invited Exalgina Gambôa to resign on February 21 due to several "occurrences" involving her. However, until the date on which she decided to publicly comment on the fact, the judge had not resigned.
Exalgina Gambôa chose to submit a request for early retirement, invoking health reasons, that same day, before now presenting her resignation from the position.
In the event of a vacancy, the presidency of the body that oversees Angolan public finances should be exercised on an interim basis, until the opening of a new competition.
The name of Exalgina Gambôa has been involved in suspicions since last year when activist and journalist Rafael Marques de Morais, who runs the Maka Angola website, asked for an investigation into the alleged exorbitant expenses of the president of the Court of Auditors (TdC).
At the time, Rafael Marques de Morais revealed that the judge's expenses, borne by the public purse through the Private Coffer of the Court of Auditors, would amount to around four million dollars and were aimed at equipping the residence, with furniture purchased from two companies.
Exalgina Gambôa was also the subject of news, initially published by Africa Monitor and later by Correio Angolense, which involved the freezing of accounts of her son (Hailé da Cruz) in Portugal, supposedly constituted with amounts from the TdC account domiciled at the bank Yetu.
According to Rafael Marques de Morais, documents prove that the judge, in addition to spending on furniture and rehabilitation of a house in a "luxurious" condominium that was delivered to her for the first time and which were higher than the value of the property (3.5 million dollars), acquired also a residence for his assistant, in the amount of 437 thousand dollars.
He also points to a "mystery", alluding to the payment of 526 million kwanzas for the "apparent acquisition of nothing", money that came out of the Private Safe for the Nova Vida Urbanization.
This project belongs to the company Imogestin, responsible for the sale of public properties, whose chairman is Exalgina Gambôa's ex-husband, Rui Cruz (father of Hailé da Cruz).
"This is an unacceptable situation, absolutely immoral", reinforced Rafael Marques de Morais, in a letter addressed to the Attorney General's Office (PGR), calling for action to be taken "immediately to end all misuse of public funds". and that "due legal process be established with a view to investigating the facts that seem suspicious".
In another letter, addressed to the president of the National Assembly, the journalist also draws the attention of Carolina Cerqueira and the deputies to the situation, in the sense that parliament exercises its role as supervisor of the activity of the Court of Auditors, "in order to urgent resolution and administrative, political and criminal accountability".
Information published last year revealed that the Portuguese authorities had frozen Hailé da Cruz's accounts, with the latter claiming that the funds belonged to his mother.
Africa Monitor reported that shortly after taking over as president of TdC, in 2018, Exalgina Gambôa ordered the opening of a bank account at Banco Yetu, which her son joined in September of that year.
In May 2021, Hailé Cruz reportedly disagreed with Mário Gavião, chairman of the executive committee of Banco Yetu, and left, with the TdC funds domiciled there being transferred to a private account.
Exalgina Gambôa then traveled to Portugal to try to unlock the money and sought the support of the President, João Lourenço, without success.
