Ver Angola

Economy

Government needs to cut investment to curb public debt, says economist

Angolan economist Alves da Rocha argued this Thursday in Luanda that the government should make cuts in some public investments, selected more for political than economic considerations, if it does not want to increase the public debt too much.

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"This is an area where the government cannot increase its efficiency," said the university lecturer, in statements to the Lusa agency, recalling that the government has set up a unit to monitor and control the implementation of public investment.

However, in public investment, the economist stressed, "there is a lot of influence peddling, there is a lot of money that empties in the context of this influence peddling".

"Public investment projects are selected much more on the basis of political considerations than considerations of economic efficiency of return on investments made by the state, return in economic terms, return in social terms," he said.

Commenting on the reform of the State and government restructuring, with the elimination of some departments, Alves da Rocha considered it "necessary", but said that it is necessary to see "if there is a reduction in the number of people, particularly the leaders of these institutions that have been eliminated" and "if the counterpart is in the sense of increased productivity and efficiency".

"Because when you reduce the number of people, those who stay have to work more, you increase productivity, but those who stay also have to work better, increasing efficiency. Do civil servants and public institutes have this notion, this passion to work? I don't know, it's a doubt", he said.

The Interministerial Commission for State Reform, which met on Tuesday, approved a report on the reform and resizing of public institutes, which resulted in proposals for the transformation, merger and extinction of several public institutes.

The programme plans to reduce the number of public institutes from 144 to 102 to increase efficiency in service provision and reduce unnecessary structural expenditure, allowing, according to the executive, a saving of one billion kwanzas per year in personnel expenditure.

In relation to charges for goods and services, the State will save three billion kwanzas.

The aim is also to avoid the duplication of public services to ensure organisational efficiency and operational effectiveness.

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