Luanda – Angola’s Vice President of Republic Bornito de Sousa said Tuesday that the key to sustainable territorial development is mainly based on the principles of bringing services closer to the population and administrative de-concentration and decentralisation.
He said Public Administration closer to the citizen can help overcome the obstacles that arise in the process of implementing the political strategy”, adding that the municipality is the privileged stage for achieving the approximation.
The Vice President of the Republic was speaking at the launching ceremony of the work “Strategic Policies for the Administration and Development of the Territory - a reference for local management”, by the Angolan academic Nazário Vilhena,
He also defended the principles of prevalence of public interest, legality and individual direction and personal responsibility to ensure a better adoption of policies and the consequent territorial development.
Bornito de Sousa underlined that the approach to the municipality of public services and the implementation of Municipalities are essential, as a typical example of local autonomy in terms of local governance.
He considered it essential to understand that Public Administration has as its scope the promotion of the well-being of those being administered, as recipients of the options of those who govern and also while participating.
According to him, it is through administrative and procedural guarantees that the citizen oversees, challenges or contests a decision considered to violate their legally protected rights and interests.
He added that the Strategic Policy aimed at sustainable territorial development must be designed taking into account the active participation of its recipients.
Local autonomy, he clarified, can grant a municipality the freedom of self-government, the faculty of self-regulation proper to territorial collective persons, without prejudice to the articulation between the Local Authority and the State arising from the Constitution and the Law.
He considered the idea of a central body capable of doing everything to be indefensible, pointing to de-concentration as the surest way to bring the Administration closer to the citizens.
He also defended that, more than a public administration closer to the citizen, it is desirable to have an administration without bureaucracy and speed.
He said that the implementation of the SIMPLIFICA 1.0 Programme, in courses, which, among others, scraped many unnecessary acts and unified several others, is an example of good international practices that make life easier for citizens, communities and companies.
He recalled that, in the context of Administrative decentralisation, which aims to transfer powers to local bodies, endowing them with administrative, financial and patrimonial autonomy, an extensive package of diplomas on Local Authorities has already been approved.
He also defended that, more than a public administration close to the citizen, it is desirable to have an administration without bureaucracy and speed.
Under the National Strategic Plan for Territory Administration (PLANEAT 2015-2025), he said, the State aims to strengthen government effectiveness and the scope and capillarity of public administration, offering basic services to raise human and development indices. the quality of life of citizens, families and the community.
He informed that PLANEAT 2015-2025, which also proposes to promote local development and entrepreneurship and the implementation of decentralisation in Angola, includes 47 programmes included in the areas of decentralisation and development, speedup and progress, government and citizenship and modernisation and training.
PLANEAT is tasked with establishing a set of premises of the Executive's policy in relation to Local Administration of the State, Municipal Administration, territorial organization and management, as well as traditional authorities and traditional communities.
The Vice-President of the Republic also spoke of the need to pay more attention to the training and empowerment of public servants, for the success of local governance.