Africa-Press – Angola. Much has been debated about the role that the State should play in favor of development, but little is analyzed about the State itself, specifically its abilities to legitimately elucidate collective objectives and implement them jointly with civil society.
By Miguel Ângelo Vieira, consultant in Economic Regulation
In order to study the role of the State, one must always be limited by the interrelationships and reciprocal influences between its institutions and instrumental mechanisms. The State represents society and, for this very reason, constitutes a stage for conflicts and the composition of multiple interests. It is known that the State, through the creation of legal norms, holds the attribute of coercion. It can then direct the behaviors of society. But, in addition to the power to impose behaviors, by means of what are called norms of direction, the State can use the tool of induction, many times more adequate for the prevention against the commission of illicit acts, because it is not always presented , the management, the most effective in the pursuit of its objectives, being of great relevance its inducing policies.
The formulation of public policies, with the current demands for democratization of the public space, tends to cross the state and civil space of Angolan society, ceasing to be more and more a decision attached to the scope of management and power. However, it is up to managers and technicians to organize, theoretically, politically and ethically, social demands, giving them flow and substance in the planning and management process, leading to their formatting and execution. General and abstract political and bureaucratic-administrative pronouncements that assert social intentions are not enough. It is necessary that they be materialized through a careful process of institutional planning, recommending global conceptions and actions for the execution of public policies.
Thus, after more than 10 years of Law n.o 8/12, of January 18 – Patronage Law, its rules are still a true mystery for a large part of Angolan taxpayers, such is the difficulty in understanding this important mechanism inductive way of promoting and developing various sectors of social, cultural and economic life (social solidarity, cultural, youth, sports, educational, health, environmental, scientific, technological and information society activities), which is explained by the tangle of rules and procedures that must be adopted by interested parties, whether patrons or beneficiaries.
Current institutionalized patronage in Angola takes the form of partnerships between the State and companies or civil society. In this partnership, it is up to the Executive Power to evaluate and approve projects capable of raising, from the business community or citizens, resources for their realization under the terms of Presidential Decrees n.os 195/15, of 07 October, and 53/19, of February 18th.
Depending on the legal provision in which the project and the financier fit, the investment can be deducted from the partial or total payment of taxes, that is, they constitute a tax waiver.
Unfortunately, there are no known patrons or beneficiaries of this transversal public policy. The fact is that the biggest funders of activities aimed at satisfying collective needs turn out to be large companies, many of them publicly owned, such as Sonangol, Unitel or financial services, which, despite having their own departments and specialized personnel in going through the rules that must be complied with and the bureaucracy to be overcome, they do not use this instrument in their social responsibility programs, translating into the inoperability of the instrument that are tax incentives, and, as a result, they do not encourage participation private initiative, the business market and citizens in promoting activities aimed at meeting collective needs,
After all, the income that the State forgoes derives from the taxes that constitute a good of the community. As it is based on public revenue, patronage needs to be intrinsically linked to the same object that governs the application of any values managed by the State: social well-being, which involves issues such as ethical and sustainable development, equity and distribution.
The need for new criteria for development, linked to equity and sustainability, as well as constructed according to the social reality of each region of our country, should bring sponsorship incentives closer to incentives for private investment and free zones. In this sense, educational and cultural policies are fundamental, especially in countries like ours, where social, cultural, youth, sports, educational, health, environmental, scientific, technological and information society solidarity concern the whole society, it being up to each ministry to draw up its own specific plan.
Finally, there is a need to exert pressure so that sectoral public policies encompass the rules of patronage and are included in the National Development Plan.
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