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Timor-Leste and Development Partners Meeting, Closing Remarks,
3-5 December 2003
Excellencies
Fellow Ministers
Ladies and Gentlemen
It has been a pleasant and fruitful Meeting. The interaction
has been frank and constructive. We are grateful for your words
of appreciation and support.
Let me recapitulate some of the points raised and discussed
1. Progress on implementation of the Annual Action Plans including
the Actions under the Transition Support Program, and oversight
institutions - Office of the Provedor and Inspector-General.
As indicated in the Government's Background Paper, the Human
Rights Adviser in my
Office has facilitated the preparation of the draft legislation
on establishment of the Office of the Provedor. The Council of
Ministers will review and approve the draft and send it to the
National Parliament in the early part of 2004.
Under my direction, the Inspector-General has investigated numerous
allegations of irregularities, found only two criminal cases,
and referred them to the Prosecutor General for legal action.
The Inspector-General will resume and expand the briefings to
the media on the activities of his office. While these are important,
we believe that strengthening the Judiciary sector is critical
to enforce law and order and resolve the few cases that are criminal
in nature. Also, the Civil Service Act, now before the National
Parliament will provide us the necessary legal basis to implement
a number of administrative disciplinary actions to remedy infractions
in the civil service. We do intend to enforce zero tolerance on
corruption in the civil service.
2. Transparency and Accountability
As some of you may recall, my office together with UNDP took
the initiative to
organise the International Conference on Transparency and Accountability
in the Public Service. The Inspector-General in my office will
pursue follow-up activities on
the Conference. The Government, with support from a number of
development partners has just completed a nationwide dissemination
exercise, which organised open daylong meetings in all 65 sub-districts.
The highly interactive forums covered a wide range of topics including
Government programs and activities in key sectors such as Education,
Health, Agriculture and Infrastructure.
We intend to continue with the Open Governance and keep on the
dialogue with our people in the districts, sub-districts and sucos.
Also, the Government will facilitate the establishment of the
multi-stakeholder high-level mechanism in 2004.
3. Fiscal developments and emerging CFET budget deficits
Starting in mid-October, we have taken a number of stringent
measures to arrest potential drift in expenditures; contain peripheral
expenditures including the use of vehicles, telephones and domestic
and international travels; and other steps to bridge the deficit
in the current fiscal year without seeking any additional assistance
from our development partners. We are pleased with your response
and the prospect of assistance on managing the transfer of vehicles,
equipment and other assets from the UNMISET and other partners,
and their use including leasing and sale.
We will continue to monitor budget execution in the remainder
of the fiscal year. For this purpose, I have recently set up a
Budget Execution Monitoring Office to watch over expenditures
across sectors which will report directly to me. On the emerging
budget deficits in the following three years, we are pleased with
your responsiveness and willingness to discuss in the coming months
the options to meet these gaps. We look forward to your counsel
and assistance in addressing this major challenge.
4. Sector Expenditure Packages
The discussion on the Sector Expenditure Packages yesterday afternoon
was rather brief. We take note of your suggestions to prioritise
the programs within sectors and across sectors and tailor the
packages to the resource envelopes. On the resource envelopes
for the combined sources budget over the next three years, we
do need further information from some development partners on
their assistance programs for Timor-Leste over the next three
years.
As I have mentioned before, we see this as a joint exercise of
the Government and the development partners. We welcome your feedback,
advice and assistance in refining the sector packages, and in
tailoring them to fit in with the combined sources budget.
5. Capacity Development
As the discussion this morning indicates, significant progress
has been made in this area within a relatively short time span.
However, much more needs to be done to meet the essential service
delivery requirements in the short, medium and long-term. We need
to develop the capacity development strategies with the full involvement
of our development partners and with an assurance of their support.
The importance of an effective and efficient civil service that
is transparent and effective is an important ingredient for good
governance. We count on the continued support of our development
partners to strengthen our capacities and become self-reliant.
6. Other Issues
We take note of the suggestions on gender mainstreaming, need
for increased focus on children, adult literacy, and other pressing
challenges including the high incidence of unemployment among
our youth. Although, they may not have been specifically mentioned
in the documents and presentations, I wish to assure you that
the Government is fully aware and is trying to address them.
Conclusion
On behalf of the people and my own, I wish to thank you for your
presence at this meeting and your valuable advice and strong support
to Timor-Leste. For those of you leaving this afternoon, I bid
you "bon voyage". Those of you staying on do visit our
beautiful beaches and enjoy yourself.
Thank you.
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