Works in the process of non-compliance with the Integrated Plan for Intervention in Municipalities (PIIM) in the provinces of Malanje and Cuanza Norte are under investigation by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR)
In the case of the province of Malanje, the PGR is investigating 50 PIIM works that have been suspended for more than two years, with a view to assessing possible crimes and consequently holding those involved accountable. The information was provided this week by the provincial governor of Malanje, Marcos Nhunga, at the opening of the 1st Ordinary Session of the local government, noting that the body has already created a commission that is going through the municipalities to evaluate the levels of physical and financial execution of the undertakings.
The government official, according to Angop, lamented the fact that the province is among the worst in the country in implementing PIIM, remembering that of the 133 works registered, 50 are still to be completed, most of which are linked to earthworks. He clarified that the delays in the aforementioned works are not related to the lack of payments, as the levels of financial execution are above the physical level. Given the situation, Marcos Nhunga reiterated the need for public managers to continue to pursue transparency and refrain from acts of corruption.
Opening inquiries
With regard to the province of Cuanza Norte, the Attorney General’s Office is investigating the PIIM construction contractors who did not meet contractual deadlines, in order to hold them accountable. According to the deputy attorney general of the Republic in Cuanza-Norte, Maria Joaquina Matias Pedro, the body she heads in the province is attentive to the work that has been halted, as it has created monitoring teams to assess the levels of physical and financial execution of the projects in the various counties.
The investigations also serve to investigate signs of misappropriation of funds by public servants, who may have entered into collusion with businesspeople carrying out works, within the scope of PIIM and the consequent liability of those involved. He said, without giving any numbers, that the PGR has already notified many businesspeople over these two years and triggered several actions to attempt conciliation.
Some resulted in consensus and the works continued as normal and others, without understanding, advised the injured bodies to initiate proceedings before the court, according to the magistrate. He explained that, despite not constituting a crime, failure to comply with contractual deadlines is subject to civil liability, in civil actions, for the damage caused to the owner of the work, and it is up to the injured institution to contact the PGR and express the desire to open proceedings once morest the contractors.
He mentioned that two cases of this nature were opened in the province in 2023 once morest two companies responsible for the construction of 450 social houses, in the town of Kilometer 11, to accommodate more than 30 families displaced by the rains, in Ndalatando, in 2022.
“One of the companies declared bankruptcy even following having received the money and the other undertakes to return the amounts received”, he stressed. He stated, on the other hand, that these delays should not always be attributed to the contractors, as many are related to the lack of payments.
According to the judge, it was found in some projects that the levels of physical execution are higher than the financial level. In these cases, he continued, responsibility for non-compliance must be attributed to the owner of the work who may not be honoring payments.
Benguela terminates contracts with defaulters
The provincial governor of Benguela, Luís Nunes, announced, at the beginning of this month, in the municipality of Balombo, that the executive will begin to terminate contracts with some non-compliant contractors and, in some cases, force them to return part of the money received for the execution of contracts.
Luís Nunes recognizes that some mistakes were made, and there is no justification for the fact that, in some cases, businesspeople had received works from the Integrated Plan for Intervention in Municipalities (PIIM) without meeting the minimum conditions, especially in the technical component, hence the rather delayed pace of the said plan in the province under its jurisdiction. From now on, he announced, the State should not entrust, for example, a “billion kwanzas” to companies without the conditions to do so.
Sources consulted by this newspaper linked to the SIC, regarding this topic, in the municipality of Balombo, reported the existence of several processes of this nature, the most blatant being the earthmoving of the road that connects the headquarters to the commune of Maka Mombolo, in that a businessman gave up on the work and was left with 30 million kwanzas from the State coffers.
