Benguela justifies non-accountability with “delay in closing the report” – Jornal OPaís

Reacting to the National Assembly’s finding, Luís Nunes makes it clear that he has nothing to “hide” and that the province’s report has already been submitted to the Ministry of Finance

Benguela is among the 14 provinces that did not report, according to the Joint Opinion Report on the Quarterly Execution Report of the General State Budget (OGE) held by the deputies. The provincial governor of Benguela argues that the failure to provide accounts was fundamentally due to a delay in closing the report. However, he guarantees that the Provision and Accounts Report has already been sent to the Ministry of Finance.

Approached by the press, following leaving a political event that he presided over, in the guise of first secretary of the MPLA, the governor of Benguela justifies that the failure to provide accounts was due to a “small delay” in completing the report, but assures that it has already been sent to the competent bodies. “There was a slight delay in closing the report, but it is already there, we have nothing to hide. (The report) has already arrived”, defended the government official, who, in 2023, had 190 billion kwanzas from the OGE allocated to the province of Benguela.

The National Assembly states, in the document, that, throughout the third quarter of 2023, only 46 of the 164 municipal administrations submitted the appropriate financial statements. The document also highlights that, of the country’s 18 provinces, only four have fully complied with the due accountability, namely those of CuanzaNorte, Huambo, Malanje and Namibe. On the other hand, with regard to the cruising speed of the works outlined in the Emergency Plan for Coastal Cities that he had promised, Luís Nunes projects a new month, March, for their materialization. Remember, however, that in November 2023, at the time he announced the release of 415 million euros by the Ministry of Finance, he pointed to the first fortnight of January 2024. “It’s starting, these two months are for tune the needles. Now, in March, things will move faster”, he assures.

Delay denotes need for manager training

Economist Alfredo José Sapi maintains that the lack of accountability and the delay in closing the report by Benguela should, to a certain extent, worry the Central Government, as it is inconceivable, in his view.

Therefore, the expert suggests that the Ministry of Finance promote a more specialized training course for provincial managers, which should teach the procedures for compiling the accountability report. Sapi is in favor of applying sanctions to public managers from non-compliant provinces, however, more than that, he emphasizes, we should invest heavily in recruiting staff, for whom this, in itself, denotes malpractice on the part of some who participate in the preparation of the report.

“I understand that investment in human resources ends up being the solution to the problem. I may be in favor of sanctioning a public manager. After the sanction, what will come next?”, he asks, highlighting that it is imperative that actions be developed to prevent accountability for the 2024 financial year, in 2025. Still with regard to the Joint Opinion Report on the Balance Sheet Report of Quarterly Execution of the General State Budget (OGE), in relation to diplomatic missions, the document, which Parliament continues to analyze, only points out that 23 of the 88 consular diplomatic missions reported regularly, 36 reported irregularly, while 29 did not report.

The joint opinion report, which covers 18 recommendations to the Executive, and the respective draft resolution were already voted on at the Plenary meeting of the National Assembly, held on Wednesday. According to the document, the public debt balance, in 2023, stood at 55.56 billion kwanzas, equivalent to 67.3 billion US dollars, representing an increase of 76 percent compared to the previous year. balance of the III Quarter of 2022. The stock of external public debt per creditor, calculated up to the III Quarter of 2023, was in the amount of 41,016,942 million kwanzas, equivalent to 49.687 million US dollars.

BY: Constantino Eduardo, in Benguela