The Angolan state has revoked contracts for the sale of six assets signed with three companies due to a definitive failure by the buyers to comply with the payment obligations, the government told Lusa on Thursday.
A statement from the Institute for Management of State Assets and Participation (IGAPE) said that contracts had been terminated with the Edson Drov’s group, regarding two assets, namely the Caxito tomato and banana processing factory and the Caxito cold storage warehouse, both in Bengo province.
The terminations also occurred with Jep Capital, for the Indutubo industrial unit and with Angola All Box, with three assets, the Induplas, Indutive and Pipeline industrial units.
According to IGAPE, with the termination of these contracts, new tenders will be launched, making it possible for these assets to be awarded to private entities with the financial capacity to carry them out, reducing the current level of non-compliance on the one hand and ensuring revenue collection on the other.
“This measure reinforces the state’s position, which through the Privatisation Programme (Propriv 2019-2022), has taken the initiative to resize the public business sector by ensuring conditions for private initiative and boosting the national economy,” the document stresses.
Angola’s secretary of state for finance and the treasury, Ottaniel dos Santos, said last week at the end of a meeting of the National Inter-ministerial Commission for the Privatisation Programme that there were some payments due, totalling 15.1 billion kwanzas (€28.7 million).
“The treatment that is given to all processes already concluded and with payment delays is systematic,” the Angolan minister said, noting that companies are contacted to cover the commitment made within the deadlines agreed with the state, whose non-compliance leads to other steps “that may even reach the rescission of the contract, that is, reversion of the asset in favour of the state for a new reprivatisation.
