Africa-Press – Angola. The Ministry of Territory Administration, Dionísio Manuel da Fonseca, informed Thursday, in Huambo, that more than five million national citizens have already been assisted at the Single Counters for Public Service (BUAP).
The BUAP, operating in the country since September 2021, through the strategic plan approved by the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, are part of the program to reform local and State administration and to improve the provision of services by municipal administrations.
At the moment, these new institutions, installed in 164 municipalities, 44 urban districts and 518 communes, are dedicated to issuing the Municipality Card, a document that replaces the Residence Certificate.
More than five million citizens were assisted during the official electoral registration, within the scope of the General Elections of August 24, 2022, until the present date.
According to minister Dionísio Manuel da Fonseca, who was speaking during the 1st National Meeting on the BUAP, held in the city of Huambo, these bodies have, so far, broadly speaking, fulfilled their role, above all, in the field of communication of the establishment and alteration of residences through the issuance and renewal of the Citizen’s Card.
However, he continued, there is an urgent need to ensure that they fully fulfill their role, so that they are integrators of user care services of municipal administrations.
Accordingly, he referred that the Ministry of Territory Administration continues to streamline the process of strengthening administrative decentralization and deconcentration, so that more municipal services are available through the transfer of central bodies to municipal administrations.
He added that the process aims to ensure that citizens, at the level of their places of residence, have easy access, among other services, to the processing of the Identity Card, birth registration, driving license, vehicle documents, licenses for granting surface rights and the various licenses that enable them to carry out income-generating economic activities.
For this purpose, he said that a specific training plan was underway, in conjunction with other ministerial departments, in terms of competences previously exercised by central bodies.
With this measure, he said, it is intended to make municipalities the epicenter of service provision to citizens, reduce administrative centralism and promote more efficient and effective citizen-governance, as a necessary, opportune and urgent action.
However, he stressed that the path towards municipalization demands a change in the paradigm of central public administration, which undoubtedly presupposes a change in the way of thinking and acting of its actors.
“We will only have a strong country if we also have strong municipalities (…), good practices in the municipalities must be able to influence the centre, in order to fulfill the maxim that life is made in the municipalities”, stressed the minister.
In addition to members of the Ministry of Territorial Administration, the 1st National Meeting on the BUAP, witnessed by the governor of Huambo, Lotti Nolika, also brought together staff from the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, deputy governors and directors of the Registry offices and Administrative Modernization of the country’s 18 provinces, as well as representatives of civil society organizations.
The participants certainly analysed, among other topics, the final report on the unofficial voter registration, the pilot experience of installing fixed data collection points for issuing Identity Cards, providing means of payment, integrating services and ensuring BUAP.
For More News And Analysis About Angola Follow Africa-Press
