Angola Declines to Reveal Cost of Government’s New Headquarters

(Bloomberg) -- The Angolan government has refused to disclose the construction costs of a proposed new seafront headquarters in the capital, saying it could influence the tender for the project.

The proposals, announced Wednesday, drew criticism from economists at a time when the government has committed to reducing unnecessary state spending. Africa's second-biggest oil producer is grappling with a debt load that amounts to 90% of gross domestic product and was granted a $3.7 billion three-year loan from the International Monetary Fund in December.

The project will be funded by private investors through a public tender, Construction and Public Works Minister Manuel Tavares de Almeida told state-run RNA Radio. “It's not prudent to disclose the estimated cost so as not to influence the competition.”

The plans call for 28 buildings, 37 homes for officials, two hotels, a convention center, and a “small marina” for leisure boats. The government would spend $344 million over seven years to cover the cost relocating residents in the area, landscaping, sewerage works, water, power parking facilities, de Almeida said.

“This is a megalomaniacal project,” Yuri Quixina, an economist at the Polytechnic Institute of Technology and Science in Luanda, said in a text message. “I have yet to see countries that have undertaken structural reforms and fiscal consolidation through such projects.”

Augusto Bafuabafua, an independent analyst on politics and the economy, said he was “dumbfounded by the plans.” The government should make the costs public “and then we can judge if the money wouldn't be better spent in other areas like education and health,” he said by phone Wednesday.

De Almeida dismissed the criticism as “dishonest and will demobilize investors who have already signaled interest in the project.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Candido Mendes in Luanda at cmendes6@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Hilton Shone

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.