Africa-Press – Angola. Twenty-six million 343 thousand 623 kwanzas were seized by the Attorney General’s Office (PGR) in the province of Huíla, from 2020 to November of the current year, within the framework of the Strategic Plan to Prevent and Combat Corruption underway in the country .
The information was provided Tuesday, in Lubango by the Deputy Attorney General of the Republic in Huíla, Celma da Silva, stating that the year in which there was the greatest seizure is the current one (2023) with 17 million 050 thousand kwanzas, followed by 2021 with eight million 259 thousand 688 kz and 2022 with one million 033 thousand 935 kz.
According to the Public Prosecutor’s Office (MP), during the period under analysis, 38 cases were charged and sent to court, with 98 defendants and another 119 are under investigation.
He declared that the emphasis is on crimes of abuse of power, abuse of trust, embezzlement, undue receipt of benefits, active and passive corruption of officials, influence peddling, economic participation in business, falsification of documents and criminal association.
According to the source, the PGR, as a guarantor of legality, in December 2018, presented the Strategic Plan for the Prevention and Combat of Corruption 2018-2022, which served as a paradigm for the Draft National Strategy for the Prevention and Repression of Corruption (ENAPREC) 2024 -2029.
Celma da Silva explained that during the aforementioned period, advertising campaigns were developed about the culture of whistleblowing, which gave rise to investigations, the initiation of criminal proceedings, the recovery of assets and, as a result, the allocation of seized assets to public purposes.
He also added that awareness-raising activities have been carried out among public servants and society in general, increased public debate around the phenomenon of corruption, with a view to mitigating it, as well as training given to MP staff and justice technicians, conferences, lectures , workshops, seminars and other activities aimed at training staff.
Despite the progress made, said the Prosecutor, several constraints were noted in the implementation of the plan, such as budgetary limitations, pending proceedings resulting from the small number of Magistrates and specialized human resources.
Sometimes inadequate working conditions, delays in responding to requests for information from some public or private institutions, lack of access to databases, among others, were other difficulties highlighted by the source in implementing the plan.
It reinforced the need for people to have structural values such as legality, probity, respect for public property, the pursuit of public interest, responsibility and accountability, as well as transparency as a pillar in the exercise of their functions.
ANGOP
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