The leader of the parliamentary group of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), Liberty Chiaka, summoned the press to present the party's point of view on the reports on the execution of the first and second quarters of the General Budget of the State of 2022.
Liberty Chiaka said that the documents were discussed and voted on on the 19th of this month, having passed with favorable votes from the parliamentary group of the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and votes against from UNITA deputies.
In the communication, the leader of the parliamentary group explained the reasons that led UNITA deputies "to reject, once again, the repeated practices of obstruction that prevent the deputy from fulfilling his duties of listening to the citizen and supervising the activities of the executive , namely a true inspection of the good execution or not, of the General State Budget".
One of the reasons, he pointed out, is the excessive delay, by the executive, in the presentation within the legal deadlines of the Execution Reports, "which according to the Regulations of the National Assembly: the President of the Republic must send the referred reports up to 45 days after the end of the quarter to which the assessment refers, which has not happened repeatedly".
"In fact, the 1st quarter report should have been submitted by May 15th and the 2nd quarter report by September 15th, 2022. Both were presented very late: only on 10 October is that the execution reports were sent to the National Assembly and only on November 18th did they enter the 5th Commission for analysis, and it took another two weeks to reach the deputies for analysis", he said Liberty Chiaka.
The deputy requested that "the reasons for these repeated delays be explained to the people and the deputies, as well as which entity is causing these serious delays, whether it is the Ministry of Finance or the Cabinet of the Holder of Executive Power".
Liberty Chiaka also complained about the deadlines, "very tight, which are given to deputies to analyze documents of such importance". "It is not understood why, contrary to the law, the executive delays so much its rendering of accounts to the National Assembly and deputies are pressured to discuss documents, without having reasonable deadlines to study them... that there are those who do not mind that the work of those who must supervise is made difficult", he stressed.
Another difficulty encountered, highlighted the political leader, is that the deputy does not receive enough information on how such large sums of money are spent or invested. "The deputy has no information on whether the respective adjudications were carried out in scrupulous respect for the laws of probity and the law of public procurement", he highlighted.
He also complained that the deputy "is not given access to the respective processes, in order to assess how many awards were made through public, fair and transparent tenders or even what percentage of contracts are made by direct award".
UNITA's parliamentary group will work, within the framework of the National Assembly and the 5th Commission on Economy and Finance, to ensure and actually implement the mechanisms that allow deputies to fulfill their supervisory role, within the scope of the Rules of Procedure of the National Assembly, he said.
"As for the details on the proper execution of the aforementioned reports, the UNITA parliamentary group is preparing, with more time, their appreciation, which will serve, among other indications and assumptions, as a basis for the discussion and approval of the General Budget of the State of 2023", he said.
