According to the Minister of State and Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic, Adão de Almeida, the "close fight against corruption", which began in the mandate of João Lourenço, in 2017, "has been carried out, not with words, but with concrete action".
The results "are visible to everyone's eyes, the feeling of impunity is over, the quality of public expenditure has substantially improved and the rigor in the management of public affairs has considerably increased," he said.
For Adão de Almeida, Angolans "know well" the dimension of the harm caused by corruption and understand the importance of work to eradicate this phenomenon "in a structured, consistent and permanent way".
"Each stage of our history is unique, each era has its particularities and challenges, the fight against corruption is one of the main challenges of our time", said the minister in his opening speech at the international conference on "Asset Recovery".
"Supporting the fight against corruption and supporting its success is not an option, it is a patriotic obligation of each one of us, the fight against corruption must belong to everyone", defended Adão de Almeida.
The minister also noted that economic and financial crime "can compromise the objectives as a State, [and] in addition to the direct damage it causes, it potentiates a series of other acts, no less harmful".
"Among us, the crime of embezzlement is particularly relevant, but it does not exhaust the wide range of conducts that harm the public purse, corrode the pillars of society and compromise the normal functioning of economic activity", he stressed.
The conference was held this Wednesday, in Luanda, as part of the celebrations of the 43rd anniversary of the Attorney General's Office (PGR), against the backdrop of the approach to asset recovery.
The fight against corruption, nepotism and impunity are the main axes of João Lourenço's governance, in power for almost five years.
Adão de Almeida, who was speaking on behalf of the President, stressed that "although the Angolan experience in the field of asset recovery is not long, its path is already remarkable and quite encouraging".
"The basic ingredients are the courage of the leadership, the determination of the various actors and the mobilization of society", he pointed out.
He praised the amount of recovered assets, both in financial and non-financial resources, having guaranteed that the Public Appropriation Law, recently approved by parliament, "will, among others, strengthen the mechanisms of asset recovery".
The aforementioned legal diploma should also reinforce the State's legal position and "speed up the reintegration processes for the State's patrimonial sphere of the recovered assets".
While always safeguarding the private property right of each citizen, he noted, "it is necessary to ensure that the recovered assets do not lose their value lying dormant in any place".
"It is necessary to decide quickly to avoid that the recovery of assets is harmful to the country", defended the minister.
"The realization of justice, which is intended to be full and effective, will only be in fact if we are able to return to the public domain the goods that were illegally subtracted from it", he concluded.
