Juciene de Sousa highlighted the importance that the executive attributes to public contracting, as a "transversal activity" in the economy and "indispensable for the pursuit of the public interest", noting that 28 percent of the resources in the 2023 General State Budget were allocated to public contracting.
In the opening speech of the workshop to disseminate the results of the evaluation of Angola's public procurement system, Juciene de Sousa indicated that public procurement has "evolved satisfactorily, with emphasis on electronic procurement which has "benefited from adjustments to the platform", since 2018, "with tangible gains for the public treasury".
In 2021, the State saved, using the platform, 9 percent (6.46 billion kwanzas) of the initially projected expenditure, in 2022 it spent 23 percent less (11.88 billion kwanzas) and in 2023 electronic contracting allowed savings of 47 percent, amounting to 15.68 billion kwanzas.
Therefore, she reinforced, "the use of public procurement must increasingly be the preferred route for concluding public contracts", in addition to being a "powerful assistant in the ongoing fight to eradicate corruption in public procurement".
Electronic contracting also made it possible to draw up a list of suppliers prevented from contracting with the State, constantly updated, added the Secretary of State.
Angola's public procurement system was recently the subject of an evaluation report that focused on several dimensions and allowed "to identify insufficiencies and non-conformities" – in particular omissions in regulation, training of agents and organization and control of entities that make public purchases – whose correction will improve its functioning.
The Secretary of State highlighted that "the improvement" of all stakeholders is necessary, including regulatory and supervisory bodies, the public sector and private agents", and the need to strengthen procedures is "unavoidable" to ensure more transparent, fair, efficient public procurement, economic and competitive.
In this sense, "it is justified to draw up a strategic plan that can define the objectives of Angolan public procurement", so that it no longer focuses only on pre-contractual procedures and also becomes an instrument for managing public finances, she added.
