Africa-Press – Angola. UNITA requested parliamentary hearings of Angolan ministers, namely the Minister of Finance, due to the “financial scandal” involving senior Angolan tax officials and several episodes that “delay the development” of Angola.
The parliamentary group of the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA, the largest opposition party in Angola), in a statement released today, said that it requested, on Thursday, joint parliamentary hearings for five ministers and three separate hearings for the ministers of Youth and Sports, Finance and Health.
For UNITA, the case of the embezzlement of 7 billion kwanzas (7.3 million euros) stolen from the State coffers by employees of the General Tax Administration (AGT) “is unequivocal proof of the weaknesses and insecurity of the national financial system, markedly affected by the corruption schemes that plague the institutions and the Government of Angola”.
The party calls for “serious and in-depth investigations” into the ramifications of the circuit of embezzlement of public funds, with political, civil and criminal accountability for those responsible, considering that there is information that the “real amounts diverted from AGT are above 80 billion kwanzas”.
“In normal societies, this scandal and others, such as that of the Migration and Foreigners Service (SME) and the Supreme Court, would be enough to lead to the resignation of the executive, which, struggling with a lack of liquidity to resolve the country’s main problems, is exposing itself to successive cases of assaults on public finances”, the statement states.
Senior AGT officials were arrested in recent days for alleged involvement in a fraudulent VAT refund scheme involving a diversion of 7 billion kwanzas (7.3 million euros).
At the end of January, Angolan authorities arrested the director of the office of the SME’s general director and the head of the Human Resources department of the same body, for alleged crimes of criminal association, undue receipt of benefits and passive corruption due to strong evidence of involvement in a fraudulent scheme of irregular classification of candidates in the institution.
UNITA considers, on the other hand, that these episodes, in addition to defrauding the State, delay the country’s development and contribute to the death of many Angolans due to the lack of medicines in hospitals, drinking water, schools, food and employment, as well as undermining the confidence of national and foreign investors.
The Ministers of State and Chief of the Military Household of the President of the Republic of Angola, of Defence, Former Combatants and Veterans of the Homeland, of the Interior, of Foreign Affairs and of Mineral Resources, Oil and Gas are also included in the list of parliamentary hearings proposed by UNITA.
According to this political party, Vera Daves de Sousa, Minister of Finance, must explain herself about the AGT case and the delay in the payment of operating funds for hospital units and the Minister of Health about the cholera outbreak and the resources to combat the disease.
Ministers responsible for the Defense and Foreign Affairs departments must explain the “military situation and the contingent of the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) in the east of the DR Congo”, the suspension of the incorporation process into the FAA and the salary delays of employees of Angolan embassies in several countries, says UNITA.
The party also wants explanations about the overall value, the compensation for the players, the technical staff and all the expenses for the trip of the Argentine national team, world football champions, who are due to play against the Angolan national team as part of the celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the independence of the Portuguese-speaking country.
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