The proposal for the 2022 OGE Law was approved this Tuesday with 135 votes in favor of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), 53 votes against the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), of Convergência Ampla de Salvação Angola – Electoral Coalition (CASA-CE) and independent deputies and three abstentions from the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA) and the Social Renewal Party (PRS).
The budget, which foresees an amount of 18.7 billion kwanzas, was approved at an extraordinary plenary meeting of the fourth legislature of the National Assembly.
For 2022, the Angolan authorities forecast an economic growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the amount of 2.4 percent, with a greater contribution from the oil sector, with 3.1 percent, with 50 percent of the expenses allocated to the service of debt.
The leader of the MPLA parliamentary group, Virgílio de Fontes Pereira, justified the favorable vote because he considers the document the "material guarantee of government action, without which it will not be possible to channel financial resources to maintain the functionality of institutions and the economy."
"This OGE is supported by the balance of public accounts, achieved in the last four years, which allows the country not to be dependent on oil resources to, for example, pay the salaries of the civil service", he argued.
UNITA deputy Amílcar Colela, who presented his party's explanation of vote, criticized the "main priority" of the 2022 State Budget which is the "payment of public debt" as it represents "50 percent of global expenditure and is not audited and certified".
The UNITA deputy also criticized the "minimal" funds allocated to the social sector, especially education and health, recalling that the country's social situation "is serious" and that the 2022 State Budget "is a friend of people's impoverishment".
André Mendes de Carvalho, CASA-CE deputy, said he disagreed "vehemently" with the priorities established in the 2022 OGE proposal and the "allocation of revenues where combating covid-19 is the first priority to the detriment of combating malaria, which kills ten times more annually than covid-19".
"We also disagree that the payment of the debt has priority over combating the situation of public calamity, drought and hunger in the south of the country, with serious consequences for people's lives and for the local economy," he said.
The vote against "independent" deputies was justified by deputy Leonel Gomes stating that the 2022 State Budget "continues with the same vices of the past", namely with "unjustified expenses that will serve to fatten insatiable bellies".
"This OGE does more, it comes to satisfy the ego of some people in the presidential family (...). And in view of that, there would be no other way but to give me my red card and give my red card because this OGE will make people suffer again to the populations", he stressed.
The PRS abstained because, according to its president and deputy Benedito Daniel, the document presents "some reservations regarding some priorities, taking into account that the legacy of the past, of the former MPLA administrations, still weighs in the current years".
Forecasts for economic growth in the middle of the pandemic "are risky, the increase in private consumption or population and the reduction in unemployment are not very optimistic", pointed out the PRS deputy.
The deputies return to the plenary next Thursday for the fourth extraordinary plenary meeting of the fifth legislative session of the fourth legislature, where, among other points, the proposed Law on Cremation will be discussed in general.
