The head of state, who gave a press conference to 12 media, responded to a question from one of the journalists who questioned the use of simplified contracting (direct adjustment) for the execution of works worth millions of dollars and underlined that, contrary to what happened in the past, public tenders are now held.
João Lourenço, without naming names, did not spare his predecessor in office, José Eduardo dos Santos, who gave his children, namely businesswoman Isabel dos Santos, control over several strategic areas of the national economy.
"I also have children and I will not hand over [works] to any of my children", said the President, who then listed several projects of the previous government that ended up being canceled during his term.
Among these, he pointed out the Barra da Dande ocean terminal and the Corimba Marginal, in Luanda, delivered "to the same person", without a public tender, with the State having saved US$380 million with the cancellation of the tender for the latter project.
"You don't have to be very smart to figure out what pockets [the US$380 million] would go to", he joked, adding that "the same person" was also responsible for the project to build the Caculo Cabaça hydroelectric plant.
João Lourenço also gave as an example the control that "the couple" (Isabel dos Santos and her husband, Sindika Dokolo, who died in 2020), who traded 60 percent of the diamonds produced in Angola, had in this sector and still had "the audacity to " to oblige Sodiam (state company that operates in the marketing of diamonds) to resort to bank credit with the bank of which they were beneficiaries.
João Lourenço recalled that the State has been winning causes related to these problems in various international bodies and stressed that it was necessary to "put an end to this party".
Another case he pointed out was that of Aenergy, which also saw its contracts for thermoelectric power plants cancelled, noting that this company also lost lawsuits in court in the United States on two occasions.
"This was the past, the now is that [the contracts] are not left for the son, the nephew or the friend", underlined the official, saying that several public tenders were opened, highlighting the one for the Port of Luanda, already delivered, and the port of Lobito, still in progress.
He stated, on the other hand, that the fact that contracts are being delivered using the direct agreement "is still a legal tender, typified by law" since these alternatives were created by the legislator to give flexibility to the decision-maker so that he does not stop following the law.
