The case was reported last Friday by the newspaper Expansão, which accounted for the 4.3 percent cut imposed on the budget of the National Assembly for 2020, including the removal of “perks for deputies, such as the abolition of income subsidies to the president. National Assembly (AN) and deputies and suppression of the purchase of protocol vehicles ”.
According to the weekly, these perks included the elimination of the income subsidy for NA president Fernando da Piedade dos Santos “Nandó”, which went from 3.7 million kwanzas per year in 2018 to 203.8 million kwanzas in 2019, and for deputies who received a total of 565.2 million kwanzas last year.
The attribution of the alleged subsidy deserved the repudiation of the parliamentary group of UNITA (National Union for the Total Independence of Angola), the main opposition party, which questioned the amount of the money and pressured parliament to clarify the situation.
In a statement released on Monday, UNITA said that, if confirmed, the allocation of this subsidy “violates the resolutions on the National Assembly budget approved by all deputies, which cement the equivalent of household income for deputies. 50 percent of the base monthly salary, far from the amount ”revealed by the newspaper.
In an explanatory note also dated Monday, the AN's communication office says that the president of the National Assembly does not benefit from a home rent subsidy because he is already entitled to an official residence.
“As for a possible subsidy attributed to the President of AN, what actually happened was a technical rook that resulted in the insertion of the amount which is referred to as a home rent subsidy, when it should be maintenance and conservation services”, the document refers.
The same note guarantees that "in terms of budgetary execution, the National Assembly never made the monthly payment of 17 million kwanzas" and adds that "the mere budgetary forecast does not automatically result in budgetary execution".
The National Assembly approved for its operation in 2020 a budget of 34.1 million kwanzas, but calls for restraint in expenses because it recognizes that the budget is “insufficient” for real needs.
According to a resolution published on March 30 in the Diário da República, of the approximately 34 billion kwanzas, 32 billion are destined to the National Assembly, 1.6 billion to the Ombudsman and 713 million to the Regulatory Entity of the Social Communication.
However, the National Assembly itself considers that this budget "is insufficient to meet real needs" and calls for "restrictive measures" to ensure compliance with the charges arising from its activities.
