João Lourenço expressed his dissatisfaction, when speaking to the press, at the end of the inauguration ceremony of the aforementioned hospital, located in the municipality of Viana, budgeted at 125.5 million euros.
The head of state stated that there are no complaints regarding the quality of the work or the equipment installed, expressing his displeasure and remembering that the contracts "are to be respected".
"And what we are seeing, what we are experiencing right now, is that the contracts with this company are not being respected – not from the point of view of quality or meeting execution deadlines – but because we are being asked for an additional amount well above what was contracted", he clarified
According to João Lourenço, the additional amount requested is "so high that it is enough to build and equip a hospital from scratch".
"It is clear that Angola cannot accept this, since this has not happened to anyone else and it will not happen now, because we will not let it," he said.
The head of state highlighted that there are many more general hospitals to be built, in the provinces of Huambo (Bailundo), Lunda Norte (Dundo) and Malanje, Cuando Cubango (Mavinga) and Moxico (Cazombo).
"We are on alert, attentive to the need to defend our interests. Public money is to be well spent, we have accounts to settle with our taxpayers, we have to know how to justify the way the money is spent", he stressed.
The President highlighted that the country is "in a market economy where the options are countless" and without the need to "necessarily stick to someone specific [because] the market will dictate the best solutions for the units that are yet to be built".
According to the head of state, the executive is managing to implement the broad construction, reconstruction and rehabilitation program of hospital units at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, despite financial difficulties, rejecting the idea that hospitals are just being built of more than 200 beds, because only these are inaugurated by the President.
In addition to infrastructure, João Lourenço said that the State is also admitting doctors and nurses, as well as diagnostic technicians, annually, through a public competition, and providing training in reference hospitals.
The General Hospital of Viana 'Bispo Emílio de Carvalho', located in the urban district of Zango, Viana, has a capacity for 356 beds, half of which are reserved for pediatrics, and was built in three years.
