Corruption in the construction sector it is well-known and documented in various literature worldwide. In most cases, it starts with the tender competition, where the “winner” pays a bribe to someone on the tender board. It is a general problem that access to information required to win a tender can be offered in exchange for a bribe. In the case of Angola, the need for rapid reconstruction paired with weak institutional capacities (post-war) is a combination that magnifies the particular risk of corruption in publicly-funded construction projects. Between early 2002 and 2011, the Angolan government invested around USD54,4 billion in new infrastructure such as hospitals, schools, and other public construction projects (USD5,5 billion a year). These investments have been extraordinarily large, as one would expect, against the backdrop of the substantial destruction done to the country’s infrastructure during the 27-year civil war.

‘The Cost of Infrastructure Development in Angola’ report analyses this important sector to respond to the question of whether the government – and in a wider sense, Angola’s citizens – gets value for money from the many construction projects. It evaluates the value of construction projects in Angola compared with others countries in the region. Furthermore, it addresses issues of governance in the sector underpinning the culture of low transparency affecting the sector. The report is an OSISA contribution, in partnership with Centro de Estudos e Investigação Científica (CEIC) at the Catholic University in Angola and Chr. Michelsen Institute (an independent research institute in Norway) to support the Angolan Government’s strategy to achieve better outcomes of the investments in public construction projects.