Bissau, Guinea Bissau, 10 Oct – Portugal handed in the first project for the Administrative Procedure Code (CPA) to the Guinea Bissau authorities Monday, drawn up by the Portuguese-Guinean legal team of the Bissau Law Faculty.

The project, handed in by the Portuguese ambassador in Bissau, José Manuel Pais Moreira, at a ceremony attended by the Guinean Minister for Justice, Namuano Dias, was drawn up after a request from Guinea Bissau and is part of the administrative reform measures the local government plans to put into place.

Explaining the importance of the project, Portuguese legal expert and scientific advisor for the faculty, Rui Ataíde said that the document was the first step to reforming the country’s Public Administration and was drawn up together with a professor from the Lisbon Law Faculty, David Duarte.

The Administrative Procedures Code, which does not exist in Guinea Bissau, is a fundamental tool for the consolidation of the Rule of Law, as it reduces the risk of administrative arbitrariness, and makes it easier to control in a more effective manner, he added.

Ataíde said that, as well as not having a CPA, Guinea Bissau also had no law to regulate Public Administration procedures for individuals.

According to Ataíde Guinea Bissau also has no regulation on the make up and workings of collegiate organs, judicial rules on delegating responsibilities or substitution, or mechanisms for taking part in Administration decisions.

These were just some of the reasons pointed out by Ataíde for the “urgent need” for a CPA. (macauhub)