Despite the rain and the constraints it caused to citizens of Luanda, PRO BONO ANGOLA, the initiative’s mentoring organization, officially launched the web platform called the Public Transparency Portal yesterday. The event that took place in the «Irmãs Paulinas» auditorium was attended by public prosecutors, senior officials of the Angolan Executive, members of civil society, churches, and professional citizens from the most varied areas of knowledge.

The president of PRO BONO ANGOLA, Bartolomeu Milton, took the floor, observed the protocol and explained that the portal is an alternative mechanism for providing information to citizens with a view to enhancing their participation and interest in the decision-making process, within the scope of management public. He also explained that, from now on, citizens will be able to search for open data and information on day-to-day public management acts, for example, the construction of a road, bridge, bridge, or budget for cleaning and sanitation in the neighborhood and of the drainage ditches, in the portal.

The jurist and university professor António Ventura highlighted the role of civil society in the process of deepening democracy in Angola, with particular emphasis on PRO BONO ANGOLA which, following the previous initiative called «SOS-TRANSPARENCY – COVID-19» dared to bring, more this important and distinguished initiative of the implementation of the transparency portal. For the academic who harshly criticized the discourse according to which “civil society is made up of lumpens”, the public manager is obliged by official duty to make public the information of the acts that he practices in the exercise of his functions and responsibility for the omission of this duty should not be imputed to citizens.

Giving the opening speech, Father Celestino Epalanga referred that transparency is fundamental for the consolidation of democracy and the rule of law in Angola. He also referred that the State must adopt mechanisms to make transparency a constant in public management acts, as this is the only way the country will be able to successfully attract foreign investment, reinforce the credibility of its institutions and close a true fight against corruption, said the Catholic prelate. “I thank and congratulate PRO BONO ANGOLA for this generous gesture and of notorious public interest, for once again providing Angolan citizens and others with a mechanism for accessing specialized information that allows greater participation of citizens in public scrutiny and for consequently, a greater openness of public institutions to new ideas and reflections on the country we want to build for ourselves and for future generations”. concluded the prelate.

The presentation of the portal fell to Eng.º Ribeiro Tenguna who navigated through the portal showing those present its functionalities and content structuring.

In addition to the interventions above, participants at the event asked several questions about aspects related to the operation, management and maintenance of the portal.

The transparency portal can be accessed through the link www.transparenciapublica.ao

Portal Writing Team