UNITA, the largest opposition party that the MPLA still allows in Angola, continues to pretend that the kingdom is what it is not, a democracy and the rule of law. From then on, he will propose urgently updating the State General Budget law to adapt it “to the new and important challenges of a modern, prosperous and well-governed Angola”, he announced today.
O leader of UNITA’s parliamentary group, Liberty Chiaka, today summoned the press to present the party’s point of view on the execution balance sheets for the first and second quarters of the 2022 State Budget.
Liberty Chiaka said that the documents were discussed and voted on on the 19th of this month, having passed with favorable votes from the MPLA parliamentary group (owner of the kingdom for 47 years), the majority party, and votes once morest by UNITA deputies.
In the communication, the leader of the parliamentary group explained the reasons that led UNITA deputies “to reject, once once more, 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 following 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 the 15th of May and the 2nd quarter report by the 15th of September 2022. Both were presented very late: only on 10 It was October that the execution reports were sent to the National Assembly (of the MPLA and with some decorative figures) and it was only on November 18 that they were sent to the 5th Commission for analysis, and it took another two weeks to arrive to the knowledge of the deputies for analysis”, 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 regarding 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 accountability to the National Assembly and deputies are pressured to discuss documents, without having reasonable deadlines to study them… we are left with the impression that there are those who do not mind that the work of those who must supervise is made difficult”, he stressed.
It remains to be seen why there is a need to meet deadlines if, right from the start, it is known that they will be approved by superior order issued by the president of the MPLA. Perhaps the MPLA should even stop bothering the opposition deputies, especially UNITA, taking away their concern regarding trying to cover the sun with a sieve, especially during the night…
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 awards were carried out in strict compliance with the laws of probity and the law of public procurement”, he highlighted. He doesn’t, nor does he have to. Since when do employees want to know as much as the boss knows? Only this one was missing. If the boss even lost the elections but turned defeat into victory…
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”. That, UNITA forgets, is like that when talking regarding countries where those who lose elections are not declared winners, in countries where decorative parliamentary figures are not called… deputies.
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. And so it goes from defeat to defeat until the final defeat.
“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.
What is certain is that UNITA deputies are unaware of the warning that Jonas Savimbi made: “You are sleeping and the MPLA is deceiving you”.
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