Ottoniel dos Santos said that, in addition to the August salary, the Government will make the first payment of the twelfth salary for the thirteenth month, an exercise that will be carried out until November, to ensure that, by December, the approximately 700 thousand civil servants will have their Christmas bonus.
The minister said that the rules for implementing the General State Budget define the deadline for paying salaries, however, it also "depends a lot" on other factors, such as the inflow of non-oil revenues.
"Over this period, there has been a time lag between the inflow period and our ability to make the payment within the timeframe that we are used to", he said.
Ottoniel dos Santos stressed that, when these variations occur, delays occur, such as the one seen with the July salaries.
"In July alone, we serviced our debt of approximately 780 billion kwanzas, twice the payroll. Our payroll is budgeted at an average of 295 billion kwanzas and on the last day of July we had a debt to pay of around 300 billion kwanzas," he said.
The Secretary of State for Finance and Treasury said that the State must comply with this commitment, under penalty of being considered in default, which "means that all registered debt will have to be paid".
"This means that we have to work to guarantee the provision of debt service and, within this timeframe, also guarantee the payment of salaries," he stressed.
