To His Excellency
The President of the Republic of Angola
João Manuel Gonçalves Lourenço
Your Excellency,
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A criminal investigation into deals worth more than 4.4 billion kwanzas at the General Tax Administration (AGT) has been left "forgotten" at the Attorney General's Office (PGR). According to Maka Angola's reporting, those named in the complaints continue to rise through the state hierarchy.
You promoted José Vieira Nuno Leiria to secretary of state for tax affairs. Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa appointed Bráulio Assis as Leiria's chief of staff. Faced with allegations, those in power respond by granting impunity.
You bear direct political responsibility for these choices as head of the executive. What interests justify such confidence in people who owe the country so many explanations?
These questions have a history. In April 2020, in the article "A Government without Institutional Coordination", I argued for the appointment of competent officials, free of cronyism and patronage. In April 2022, I acknowledged the merit of your rhetoric against corruption, but warned: "The fight against corruption must not be used to create a new class of predators." In September that year, I criticised the "theory of proximity": choosing government officials for their closeness to the person who holds ultimate decision-making power.
On 24 May 2024, I wrote to you about the €323.5 million authorised for the purchase of 600 buses through a simplified procurement procedure, and the preferential treatment afforded to private intermediaries. I reminded you that "your reputation is Angola's reputation". The decisions you have taken since allow us to judge what became of those appeals.
In the AGT case, Maka Angola published correspondence concerning the role of Portuguese national Carla Marisa Castelo Trindade Martins in preparing the tender that her husband's company, In Pressionante Kianda, would go on to win. Carla Trindade had advance access to the tender documents, requested and obtained changes to its requirements, and helped prepare the response to a rival bidder's challenge. Bráulio Assis chaired the committee responsible for evaluating Kianda's bid. The initial contract, signed in April 2024, was worth one billion kwanzas plus VAT.
How can bidders be treated equally when one of them helps set the rules and respond to challenges? What public interest was served by such intimacy between the evaluators and the company they were evaluating?
On 27 June 2023, Carla Trindade informed Elisa Leiria, the wife of the then AGT chairman and a senior tax officer at the institution, that her employment by In Pressionante 2Win and registration with Portugal's social security system had been finalised. By then, Kianda had already secured a 140 million kwanza contract from AGT. 2Win held a stake in Kianda, and its shareholders were Mário Martins and Maria Filipa Quadros. Quadros was also a co-manager of the Angolan company and a co-signatory to its contracts with AGT. The employment of Leiria's wife was thus tied to the business structure benefiting from public procurement. Elisa was in Lisbon on six months' leave, subsequently extended; in July 2024, Vera Daves reassigned her to the Public Finance Information and Communication Technology Service.
Your government had been alerted long before these cases were exposed in our reporting. On 2 September 2024, a complaint about these dealings was sent to the Inspectorate General of State Administration (IGAE). Correspondence already published traces its passage from Minister Vera Daves to Leiria, until it reached Carla Trindade Martins herself, who shared it on 7 September. The state managed to deliver the complaint to the very person it concerned.
On 17 October 2024, Salvador Pascoal filed a criminal complaint. The case is identified as No. 4889/025-F, under the supervision of Luís Mário Quilulo, head of the public prosecution office attached to the Criminal Investigation Service (SIC-Geral). According to information gathered by Maka Angola, a claim that Leiria was entitled to special jurisdiction was used to refer the case to the National Directorate for Investigation and Criminal Prosecution, then headed by Pedro Mendes de Carvalho, now attorney general. The investigation is reported to have been shelved at the PGR.
The facts were brought before the courts, the SIC, the PGR, the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF) and the IGAE. Courts issued interim orders, but the fate of the criminal investigation remains unexplained. Leiria and Bráulio were promoted. What did each institution do with the information contained in the complaints it received?
Meanwhile, the contracts continued. On 25 November 2024, Leiria signed an individual consultancy contract worth 181 million kwanzas with Carla. On 22 June 2026, they signed another, worth 370 million kwanzas plus VAT. That amounts to 551 million kwanzas to support the investigation and preparation of tax-crime cases. A person named in complaints about the tax authority's dealings was hired by that same authority to help investigate tax offences.
The continuing business produced another company. Kianda In Sana was incorporated on 8 May 2025, with its capital controlled by Carla's husband, Mário Martins, directly and through In Pressionante Wood & Metal. Six days later, AGT was already crediting it with previous experience in trade fairs and awarding it 72 million kwanzas for its stand at the Benguela International Fair (FIB). Leiria approved the award on 14 May, the day the company was invited to bid. Its tax registration certificate was issued only the following day. How did a company six days old acquire the experience used to recommend it?
The estimated total of 4.426 billion kwanzas covers the communications-plan contract and its renewals, Carla's consultancy contracts, and trade-fair contracts awarded to the two companies. It includes estimates for the most recent editions of the Luanda International Fair (FILDA) and the FIB, based on the amounts awarded for previous editions.
Money also flowed into private accounts. In 2025, Carla's personal account at Banco Angolano de Investimentos (BAI) received 123 million kwanzas from In Pressionante Kianda in 72 transfers. In October, the company also sent 34.4 million kwanzas to Kianda In Sana. That is 157.4 million kwanzas transferred to those two destinations. Who authorised the October transfers, and under what authority, after the court had suspended the resolution appointing Carla and Mário as managers?
The Finance Ministry also deposited a total of 249 million kwanzas into Carla's personal BAI account in five instalments. These funds do not correspond to her AGT consultancy contracts, whose payments go through Banco Keve. On what basis did Carla receive these Treasury funds?
In her right of reply, Carla said of In Pressionante Kianda: "I am not even a shareholder." The absence of her name from the shareholder register did not prevent almost 123 million kwanzas from entering her account. Before the October credits, twelve payments totalling 49 million kwanzas were made from that account to TASIS -- The American School in Portugal between February and July 2025.
The documents published in "Cotton Candy at Angola's Tax Authority" reveal further discrepancies between goods invoiced and goods supplied. Maka Angola published the responses from Carla and Bráulio in full. Both deny wrongdoing.
I respect the presumption of innocence of everyone concerned. It provides no excuse for paralysing investigations and does not relieve the executive of its duty to answer for its appointments.
Mr President,
Leiria had already appeared in court before his promotion. In September 2025, he testified as a witness in another case of alleged fraud at AGT. In March 2026, according to Novo Jornal, prosecutors challenged the truthfulness of his testimony and the scale of the fraud he had described to the court.
You appointed him secretary of state on 8 September 2026. Our series began publication four days later. The complaints to the institutions and his earlier court appearance predated it. What information did the Presidency receive? What scrutiny of Leiria's management record and integrity justified his promotion?
Vera Daves knew about the 2024 complaint. After the public revelations, she appointed Bráulio to Leiria's office. It was her duty to announce the Finance Ministry's cooperation with the judicial authorities, make the documents available and refer the new facts to the IGAE. The appointment is a demonstration of political support for those concerned. Why? Whose interests is the minister protecting? Why does she risk sinking into this quagmire and compromising the authority of the executive along with her own?
The Justice Ministry has yet to address publicly the allegation that Carla Trindade and her father, José Maria Trindade, obtained Angolan nationality fraudulently. In a legal opinion published by Maka Angola, Rui Verde concludes, on the basis of the documents he examined, that the grant of nationality to both lacks a legal basis. What inquiries has the ministry ordered to establish the legality of these acts and the responsibility of those who carried them out?
Facilitating the unlawful acquisition of nationality or passports undermines the credibility of Angolan documents and may expose law-abiding citizens to suspicion and additional checks abroad. Establishing how Carla and her father obtained nationality, and who authorised the disputed acts, is also a defence of national sovereignty.
Mr President, the documented facts about AGT's dealings demand an investigation into suspected embezzlement, corruption, unlawful financial participation in business dealings, abuse of power, document forgery and money laundering. The suspicions of money laundering are particularly serious at a time when Angola is seeking to leave the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list. In its statement of 19 June 2026, the FATF kept Angola under increased monitoring and required the country to demonstrate an increase in money-laundering investigations and prosecutions. What explanation will your government give international assessors for the reported shelving of this case at the PGR, José Leiria's promotion and Bráulio Assis's appointment as his chief of staff?
Leiria's promotion has a precedent in José de Lima Massano. In October 2018, Maka Angola compared the initial estimate of just over $10 million for the Currency Museum with construction costs exceeding $64 million, excluding its furnishings and equipment. The following month, we exposed the contract addenda for refurbishing the headquarters of the National Bank of Angola (BNA). The initial budget was $10.8 million; additional costs exceeded $22 million. In August 2019, we questioned what had become of the more than $2 billion injected by the BNA into Banco Económico, and the instruction to recapitalise it again with Sonangol funds.
These allegations had been public for years when, on 8 June 2023, you appointed Massano minister of state for economic coordination. Massano denied overbilling at the Currency Museum. In February 2025, following the complaint I filed, the PGR confirmed that it was investigating. What clarification of the facts preceded your decision to give him responsibility for the economy as a whole?
In the former province of Cuando-Cubango, now divided into Cuando and Cubango, the protection of officials has an even more glaring human cost. José Martins remains governor of Cubango. In "The Palace Gluttons", published in May 2025, we compared six food delivery notes with the 94.5 million kwanzas paid by the provincial government in 2023 to feed the children at the Mbembwa -- Padre João Bosco dos Santos residential care centre. The listed goods were worth approximately three million kwanzas at 2025 prices. The woman in charge of the centre reported having to beg to feed the children.
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A company belonging to Celestino Mutindi, son of former governor Pedro Mutindi, billed José Martins's provincial government approximately 137 million kwanzas for toner and ink cartridges in 2023 and 2024. We also exposed an annual legal consultancy contract worth 120 million kwanzas, approved by the governor. What investigation was carried out? What explanation did the Presidency receive about the money intended to feed the children?
As for Pedro Mutindi, in 2019 we exposed contracts benefiting his daughter and dealings with the Provincial Hospital by the man who was then his driver and later became head of his escort. The invoices even listed eggs in cubic metres. In 2023, we published documents concerning Mutindi's certification of debts claimed by the Chicoil Group, exceeding $200 million at the 2016 exchange rate, for supplies allegedly provided to people in need.
You removed him as provincial governor in July 2019. On 27 March 2025, you appointed him ambassador to Namibia. What clarification of that record qualified him to represent Angola?
Mr President,
The cases of Leiria, Massano, Martins and Mutindi show that presidential confidence persists in the face of serious allegations.
I ask you to publish the assessments underpinning these appointments; to order, within your powers, independent inquiries into the dealings of AGT, the BNA and the former province of Cuando-Cubango; to ensure that the evidence is handed to the judicial authorities; and to explain what political consequences you will draw from the facts. We need clearly assigned responsibilities, deadlines and results. Judicial independence provides no excuse for inaction or complicity by those who make appointments, exercise oversight and have inspection bodies at their disposal.
You have had time to change your criteria. You must now answer for the choices you have repeatedly made. If documented allegations continue to be followed by contracts and promotions, you risk ending your term as the president who fought corruption in order to capture it and put it at the service of other private interests. The hope of freeing the state from predation will have become an opportunity to replace those who benefit from it.
Angola cannot continue to pay, through the suffering of its people, the price of keeping you in power. Angolans entrusted you with safeguarding what belongs to everyone. I ask for a response because you are accountable for fulfilling that responsibility.
Your Excellency,
Do not let your legacy to the Angolan people be the perception that you were the guardian of a new system of corruption and state capture.
Yours respectfully,
Rafael Marques de Morais
Angolan citizen
