The award of the purchase of 600 buses for 350 million dollars, through a presidential order, led to a clarification from the Ministry of Transport, according to which the investment includes the creation of a vehicle assembly factory aimed at exports.
The acquisition of the buses was awarded to a consortium – Opaia Europa and IDC – which has the same owner behind it, the Angolan businessman Agostinho Kapaia, writes Rafael Marques in a letter addressed to President João Lourenço, to which Lusa had access.
In the letter, the activist and director of the Maka Angola website highlights that the unit price per bus – around 584 thousand dollars – is far from the prices consulted, which range between 162 and 270 thousand dollars, and contests the simplified contracting procedure chosen, as that it is “exceptional” and subject to strict rules, namely the value and being a justified purchase.
“Now, as no justification is seen in presidential order no. 111/24, it becomes null due to lack of justification”, he highlights.
In addition to the price, Rafael Marques questions the use of intermediary companies with no experience in the field, with headquarters in Portugal and Dubai. Opaia Europa Limitada's majority shareholder is Agostinho Pinto João Kapaia (60 percent), with the remaining 40 percent belonging to the Angolan group Opaia, SA
IDC International Trading DMCC is registered in the name of Agostinho Kapaia, main partner of the Opaia Group.
The activist also considers it “bizarre” that the factory was not mentioned in the presidential order, considering that the President of the Republic had been disauthorized.
Rafael Marques adds that, in the last two years, the President committed 1.173 billion euros of public funds to projects involving the Opaia group using simplified contracting: a credit line of 125.5 million euros for a pediatric hospital, three contracts worth 357.5 million euros for a water treatment system, in a consortium with other companies, 350 million dollars for the construction of a fertilizer factory and 45.4 million euros for work on morgues in Luanda.
"What is the Opaia group, after all?", asks the journalist, adding that, on its website, the company states that its projects are at an early stage, despite the group having been “supposedly founded in 2002”.
Rafael Marques calls for the promotion of open and competitive public tenders, asking João Lourenço to revoke the order in which he approved the purchase of the buses, as well as for the National Assembly to exercise its supervisory powers over the executive branch.
