According to a brief note from the Presidency of the Republic, to which VerAngola had access, the works "show a marked delay", with the head of State leaving "clear guidelines for the first phase of the project to be completed by the end of the present year, December".
On the occasion, the President of the Republic referred that the delay is not related to the financial execution. "Financial execution is not delayed, so there will have been reasons of another order that meant that the level of physical execution did not keep up with the level of financial execution", he said, quoted by Rádio Nacional de Angola (RNA).
The head of state also said that he decided to travel to the work to "make decisions on the ground", adding that they decided that the contractor will deliver the work in December of this year.
"I decided to go here to the worksite precisely to make decisions on the ground that I am sure will, as of today, radically change the framework currently in force. In a few minutes we have just decided that the contractor will deliver this work in December of the current year, contrary to what was indicated to be only for March of next year. This work will be delivered, it has to be delivered, in December of this year", advanced João Lourenço, quoted by RNA.
João Lourenço also spoke about the mission of this type of centre: "The mission of these centers is to monitor 24 hours a day all movements that take place in our territorial waters", he said, quoted by RNA.
"We can say that these centers are or will be the eyes of the Angolan Navy. It is from these centers that the Navy will receive all the information about the movements that take place in our territorial waters, movements of fishing vessels, fishing illegally, national and international merchant navy ships, as this is an international route", he added.
According to Angop, work on the future maritime surveillance center is estimated at more than 60 million dollars and started in September 2019. The project will have a medical station, cafeteria, gym, bedroom, among others.
