Angolan minister of Justice and Human Rights Marcy Lopes said Wednesday that Angola has taken significant steps in the fight against corruption, as part of governmental and legislative profound reform.
The minister was speaking at the opening ceremony of the Regional Conference on Combating Corruption, which brings together, in Luanda, the member countries of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), around anti-corruption priorities.
In his speech, Marcy Lopes said that President João Lourenço made and continues to make the crack down on corruption one of the fundamental aspects of his governance, initiating profound reforms at the governmental and legislative level, as well as the creation of new services dedicated to combat this phenomenon.
The official underlined the presentation of the National Strategy Project for the Prevention and Fight against Corruption (ENAPREC) and its corresponding public consultation from 18 April to 18 May of the current year.
According to him, the approval of ENAPREC aims to achieve, among other objectives, the reduction of corruption rates by promoting integrity, transparency and improving the provision of services in the public and private sectors, transparency in management of public affairs and the involvement of citizens in the prevention and repression of corruption.
Marcy Lopes, who was speaking on behalf of the President of the Republic, João Lourenço, stressed that the fight against corruption is not and should not be viewed as something exclusive and designed for the holders of political offices.
“On the contrary, it must have a wide scope to reach both the top and the bottom of public services. Only in this way will we, in fact, have good governance, a good State and a good society”, said the minister, to whom corruption is an evil that needs to be prevented, monitored and fought.
He appealed to the countries of the SADC region to take measures to, together, overcome the challenge of fighting corruption in an organised, articulated and cooperative way.
“It is necessary that we all look at corruption as one of the main causes of impediment to the development of societies. Only united and coordinated with other countries will we overcome this problem”, he stressed.
According to the organisation, the objective of the conference is to find an agreement on the common roadmap for all SADC members, containing a set of recommendations and commitments for the realization of anti-corruption priorities.
The conference focuses on thematic areas identified as priorities for the SADC region, namely national and regional coordination and public procurement.
The aim is for participating countries to hold, firstly, detailed technical meetings and, secondly, to develop a list of priority commitments to enhance the implementation of a convention in their countries, to be approved at the conference.
Source: Angola Press News Agency (APNA)