Africa-Press – Angola. Civil society organizations defended, this Tuesday, the creation of mechanisms, by the Government, for their greater contribution to the preparation and supervision of the General State Budget (OGE).
The recommendation was made at a press conference on the OGE 2024 proposal, promoted by the Social Political Observatory of Angola (OPSA), the Social Science and Humanities Laboratory of the Catholic University of Angola (LAB) and the Action for Rural Development and the Environment (ADRA).
The directors of ADRA, Carlos Cambuta, and LAB, Cesaltina Abreu, suggest expanding the mechanisms during the formulation of the budget, so that there are more opinions from communities and civil society organizations on the priority projects for the OGE.
Those responsible also referred to the requirement to give sufficient time, during the budgetary and political cycles, for the public to give opinions at each stage and to be able to actually integrate the citizens’ proposals into the OGE.
“The contribution collection forum should take place at the beginning of the second quarter of each calendar year, to allow the Ministry of Finance sufficient time to compile the information, taking into account the reports and minutes coming from municipal administrations,” they argued.
They considered it important that municipal administrations and ministerial departments provide feedback to citizens and their social partners on the priority projects to be implemented.
They also point out that it is essential that the law on the sustainability of public finances is accompanied by a new one on political responsibility for their sustainability.
The main objective of the legal provision is to share with Angolan society the appreciation of this important governance instrument.
According to those involved, the levels of public scrutiny of the OGE are still low, despite registering some specific improvements.
As an example, they said that for the 2024 OGE, five thousand 740 citizens were interviewed throughout the national territory.
According to those responsible, the Participatory Budget constitutes an instrument that promotes the democratic participation of citizens in decision-making regarding the country’s socioeconomic development priorities.
Approved by Presidential Decree 234/19, of 22 July, the Participatory Budget is a tool that the Angolan Executive adopted in the process of administrative deconcentration and decentralization to make citizens more participative in the preparation and implementation of the budget.
The process of preparing the budget proposal, in the country’s 164 municipal administrations, took place in the months of September and October 2023.
The first phase of the implementation of the Participatory Budget took place in 54 municipalities in the 2020 financial year.
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