La'o Hamutuk

Final 2012 budget documents online

2012-01-24T18:55:00.000+09:00

Nearly two months after Parliament approved the 2012 state budget and more than a month after the President promulgated it, Timor-Leste's Ministry of Finance has posted the six books for the promulgated General State Budget to their website, with changes made by Parliament and some other changes. They include the final version of the Budget Law, and reduce information about borrowing and infrastructure spending after this year.

La'o Hamutuk made some of the files smaller and posted them to our page on the budget. You can also download them here:

CPI2: Perceptions of corruption, inflation increase in Timor-Leste

2011-12-02T18:01:00.000+09:00

Transparency International just published its annual report on perceptions of corruption for nearly every country in the world. Timor-Leste scores 2.4 out of 10 (a higher score indicates that people believe the country is less corrupt), ranking 143 least corrupt out of 183 countries. This is slightly worse than last year's score of 2.5, but our ranking has slipped significantly (last year it was 125 out of 178). In this year's report, Timor-Leste is seen as having equal corruption with oil exporters Azerbaijan, Mauritania, Russia and Nigeria, who rank worse than 78% of the countries in the report.

Transparency International's rating for Timor-Leste is calculated from five ratings published by other agencies (ADB, Global Insight, World Bank and World Economic Forum). The 2011 ratings reflect how people perceived corruption during 2009-2010. In the graph above, the lower score in the 2008 report reflects the 2006 crisis, while the higher score in 2010 reflects post-election optimism. Although Timor-Leste's score improved in 2010, its ranking improved even more because the global economic crisis increased perceptions of corruption in other countries. Timor-Leste's worsening score and rank in the latest report is cause for reflection.

La'o Hamutuk often writes about the resource curse afflicting Timor-Leste, of which corruption is one symptom. Another symptom is escalating inflation, which hits poor people hardest. Timor-Leste's National Statistics Department just published the Consumer Price Index (CPI) report for July-September 2011, showing that inflation nationwide is running at 12.4% annually. In Dili, it is even higher, with the October monthly Dili region CPI report showing 14.4% (15.1% excluding housing).

An IMF team which visited Timor-Leste recently believes that rapidly rising prices here are mostly caused by factors within the country -- higher rates of state spending than local productive industries can absorb, which is sometimes called "Dutch Disease."

If we do not change direction, we are likely to end up where we are headed. Although Parliament's refusal to appropriate $200 million for the Timor-Leste Investment Company in the 2012 budget was a positive step, the hasty addition of $111 in other expenditures and the authorization to borrow $160 million were not. Ita hein!

Parliament passes $1.7 billion 2012 State Budget

2011-11-28T16:47:00.002+09:00

In the dark hours of Friday, 25 November, Timor-Leste's National Parliament approved a $1.674 billion budget for 2012, including $1.495 billion from the Petroleum Fund. Although the MPs had eliminated $200 million the Government had proposed to kickoff the Timor-Leste Investment Company, they added $111 million in other expenditures, so the total enacted budget is $89 million less than the Government's proposal. Despite the cuts, this represents a 381% increase in the state budget during the last four years, a higher rate of growth than every country in the world except Zimbabwe. See La'o Hamutuk's website for more information on the State Budget, including documents.

	Salaries	Goods & Services	Transfers	Minor Capital	Develop. Capital	Total expenditure	Parliament changes
Consolidated fund (all gov't) excluding autonomous agencies, TL Investment Company, Special Funds and Borrowing	137,401	232,484	199,579	38,917	111,192	719,573	61,481
Autonomous agencies	2,670	113,784	-	4,000	-	120,454	24,472 *[fuel for EDTL]*
TL Investment Company					-	-	(200,000) [CITL]
Special Funds
* Infrastructure Fund					761,003	761,003	14,803
* Human Capital Development Fund		30,000				30,000	0
Borrowing					43,100	43,100	10,000 *[Maubisse-Ainaro road]*
Total including Autonomous agencies, Special Funds and Borrowing	140,071	376,268	199,579	42,917	915,295	1,674,130	(89,244)
Withdrawal from the Petroleum Fund						1,494,956	(99,244)
Parliament's changes (including all.)	0	31,568	5,350	12,966	(139,128)	(89,244)

New MCC scorecard shows mixed results

2011-11-24T19:36:00.000+09:00

The United States government's Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) calculates a scorecard every year to determine which countries are eligible for its foreign assistance agreements, called Compacts. For the last three years, Timor-Leste has failed the test, but the changes in scores from year to year are interesting. For Timor-Leste, they show how slowly our country is improving; in some cases things are getting worse.

Due to confusion about whether Timor-Leste is a "Low Income Country" or a "Low-Middle Income Country," MCC's new scorecard for Fiscal Year 2012 cannot be compared with the past two years. However, La'o Hamutuk has recalculated it to produce the graph at right and the scorecard at left. Our website describes the original and revised calculations, with links to documents and details on the indicators, methodology and history.

Like all such rating systems, the MCC scorecard is flawed and sometimes fails to capture the reality of Timor-Leste, which is the second most petroleum-export-dependent country in the world, with the second-fastest-growing state expenditures. Nevertheless, La'o Hamutuk believes that indicators like this can help us understand how our economy, governance and social welfare are going, especially in comparison with other countries. We should be doing better.

Parliament rejects TL Investment Company. PN rejeita t$200 ba CITL

2011-11-21T12:29:00.012+09:00

Monday morning, Timor-Leste's Parliament voted 30-26 (with five abstentions and four absent) to delete $200 million from the Government's proposed $1.8 billion budget, for start-up capital for the not-yet-established Timor-Leste Investment Company.

La'o Hamutuk appreciates the wisdom of the Parliamentarians in protecting the people's resources, as we suggested in several newspapers (bele le'e artigu husi LH iha Tetum) during the last two weeks. We especially applaud the courage and leadership of the Partido Democratico, a member of the AMP governing coalition, in putting the welfare of Timor-Leste's people ahead of political expediency. The successful amendment to remove CITL funding was also supported by Fretilin, PUN and some members of PSD and ASDT.The following is the speech presented by PD Bench Chair Adriano do Nascimento just before to the vote (La'o Hamutuk's unofficial English translation follows afterwards):

Deklarasaun politika ba CITL

Initiative politika hodi hamosu Kapitalizaun Industria Iha Timor Leste, ami la kestiona, nein kontra nia importansia no nia ezistensia. Ami apresia tebes boa vontade politika no kbit intelektual hodi hamosu konseitu ida, Iha debate orsamento 2011.

Maske nune, nudar politiku nebe Iha mos sensibilidade politika, ba kestaun de konseitu dezelvolvimentu global ba povu no nasaun ida ne'e, mak ami hakarak haklaken, ami nia pozisaun politika ba publiku katak Politika kapaitalizasaun ho osan dollar juta 200, seidauk oportunu, atu hahu kedas iha tinan 2012.

Razaun nebe Lori ami hodi hateten zero ba CITL ba tinan 2012, mak razaun legal, ekonomiku no sosial nebe haktuir iha fraze hirak tuir mai ne'e:

1. Lei ba investimentu publiku, atu hari Impreza estatal, mak seidauk iha hodi servi hanesan kuadru legal no mata dalan, ba oinsa atu hari? ho kapital inisiu no masimu hira?se mak atu zere saida? investmentu saida mak sai preiorida? no tamba sa? investimentu ne'e, halo ho se? Iha nebe no bainhira? No mos kestaun teknika ekonomika no politika sira seluk, nebe lori ita atu ba mundu transparansia no akontabilidade estadu nian.

2. Kapitalizasaun ho osan dollar juta 200 ne'e, bot tebes atu aloka iha tinan 2012 nudar, tinan ba dezenvolvimentu demokrasia. Eleisaun presidential no parlamentar sei nesesita, rekursu no esforsu hot-hotu, ho nia finalidade lori emvairomentu foun ukun nian, no adaptasaun ukun nain sira, ba sira nia ukun ne'e rasik.

Ho razaun fundamental rua nebe haktuir Iha leten, maka ami konklui katak:>

1. Tinan 2012, nudar tinan de konsolidasaun demokrasia no estabilidade. Tamba ne'e, maka rekursu no esforsu hot-hotu, diak liu oriente hodi responde nesesidade baziku no urgente hanesan; kadeira no meja ba estudante sira, irigasaun no trator ba agrikultor sira, aimoruk ho mediku ba ema moras sira, estrada, be mos no ahi ba ita hotu.

2. Ho hanoin Iha leten, mak lori ita iha diferensia tatika ba implementasaun CITL, katak guvernu hakarak hahu ohin, ami hakark hahu aban. Ne'e siknifika katak, kestaun de tempu no prioritizasaun, importansia vida moris povu no nasaun nian, mak lori ita haksesuk malu no satan malu, ba buat nebe los no justu, ba ita hotu no ba Timor nia oan, iha Timor ida deit.

Tamba ne'e mos mak Ami hakarak hahu aban, ho konseitu ka filozofia dezenvolvimentu ida hanesan tuir mai ne'e:

"....ohin tau lai osan ba Han kalan nian, no matabisu ba aban dader nian. Hafoin, la'o hakat ba eskola, no dada is iha mahon ida, iha uma nia laran, tur iha kadeira ida, no hakerek iha meja oan ida, hafoin, iha lorokraik, mak buka Internet hodi akompanha dezenvolvimentu Timor Leste nian, inkluindu CITL...".

Ami konsiente katak, maluk sira nia hanoin Luan no naruk duni, maibe, ami nia hanoin mos, la klot no la badak hanesan buat nebe deputado Manuel Tilman hateten. Ita nia diferensia mak ne'e, Imi Mai ho orgulho no optimism, ami fihir ho Laran susar no todan. Laran todan atu hakat kedas ohin ho osan dollar juta 200, no laran susar, atu husik deit sira nebe halerik hodi hein ita, atu hatutan sira nia moris ohin nian, hanesan mensiona iha leten.

Los duni, moris aban tenki hahu ohin, maibe, moris ohin mak han no hemu la to'o, estuda iha aihun no tur iha rai, no moras seim aimoruk, halo moris aban sei namlaek no la iha serteza.

Maske nune, se proposta ida ne'e pasa ho votus maioria, ami tatoli ami nia preokupasaun. Mos, se karik projectu ne'e hetan susesu bot, ami tatoli ami nia parabens. Obrigado wa'in.

Dili, 21 Novembru 2011
Adriano do Nascimento
Chefe Bancada Partido Democratico

===================================
Policy Declaration on CITL (unofficial translation by La'o Hamutuk)

We don't question the policy initiative to create capitalization for industry in Timor-Leste, nor its importance or urgency. We greatly appreciate the political good will and intellectual power to develop this concept in the 2011 budget debate.

However, as politicians we are also politically sensitive to the question of the overall concept of development for this people and nation, which we want to explain, our political and public position that the $200 million capitalization is not yet opportune to start immediately in 2012.

The reasons we say to cut CITL to zero for 2012 are legal, economic and social reasons, which we follow according to these reasons:

1. The public investment law to create state businesses has not started to work as a legal framework and guidline, so how to create them? With how much initial and maximum capital? Who will manage what? What investment will be prioritized? And why? This investment will be done with what? Where and when? There are more technical, political and economic questions, which bring us to the sphere of the state's transparency and accountability.

2. Capitalization with $200 million dollars is too large to allocate for 2012, which is a year to develop democracy. The Presidential and Parliamentary elections will need everyone's resources and efforts, and result in a new leadership environment, with our leaders having to adapt to the new government.

For these two fundamental reasons, we conclude that:

1. 2012 is a year to consolidate democracy and stablility. Therefore, it is better to orient all our resources and efforts to respond to basic and urgent needs, such as chairs and desks for students, irrigation and tractors for farmers, medicine and doctors for sick people, roads, water and electricity for us all.

2. These thoughts lead us to a tactical difference for implementing CITL, which the Government wants to start today, and we want to start tomorrow. This means that, the question of time and prioiritization, importance for the lives of our people and our nation, brings us to some truths and conclusions that are true and fair, for all of us and for all Timorese, in our single Timor.

Therefore, we want to begin tomorrow, with a concept and philosophy of development as follows:

"today put aside money to eat supper, and tomorrow morning's breakfast. Later, we go to school, live under the same roof, in the same house, sit in one chair, and write on one desk, later, in the afternoon we look for internet to accompany Timor-Leste's development, including CITL..."

We realize that some of our friends's have far-seeing, long-term ideas, but we also think, not short or narrow like MP Manuel Tilman says. Our difference is this -- you come with pride and optimism, we observe with worry and deep consideration. We feel that it is difficult to move forward quickly with $200 million. We find it troubling to ignore the cries which appeal to us, to continue their daily lives, as explained above.

It's true that tomorrow's life begins today, but when life today doesn't have enough food and drink, students under the trees sitting on the ground, sick without medicine, life tomorrow will be shriveled and uncertain.

Therefore, if this proposed amendment passes with a majority vote, we offer our concerns. But, if this CITL project is a big success, we offer our congratulations. Thank you.

Dili, 21 November 2011
Adriano do Nascimento
Chief of Bench, Democratic Party

TL rejects US rejection of UNESCO

2011-11-18T11:04:00.001+09:00

Timor-Leste is one of the poorest countries in the world, and the United States is of the richest. Nevertheless, Timor-Leste's Parliament voted yesterday to defy United States policy on Palestine, making a special contribution to UNESCO to partially compensate for the U.S. cancellation of its contribution to the United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organization, whose budget had been 22% financed by the United States. The U.S. stopped funding in response to UNESCO's 107-14 vote on 31 October to accept Palestine as a full member.

Timor-Leste's Parliament is currently debating the country's State Budget for 2012. During the debate on 17 November, MP Aniceto Guterres, leader of the opposition Fretilin party, proposed to add $1.5 million to the $1.76 billion budget as a contribution to UNESCO. Guterres explained that the agency is facing a financial crisis because the U.S. cancelled their support because the agency accepted Palestine.

During the debate on the amendment, some MPs expressed concerns about the political implications of repudiating U.S. policy. They emphasized that this support should be seen as a gesture of solidarity, and should not drag Timor-Leste into the political conflict facing the agency. Proponents clarified that the proposal is intended to give financial support to UNESCO, because UNESCO and other UN agenciessupported TL's struggle for independence. Timor-Leste's Deputy Prime Minister Jose Luis Guterres (former Timor-Leste Ambassador to the U.S. and U.N.) and Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs welcomed and appreciated the proposal as gesture of solidarity, and the amendment was approved with 34 votes in favor, five opposed and 15 abstentions.

Debate on the budget will continue for another week, and more information is on La'o Hamutuk's website. Timor-Leste's Constitution states that the nation "shall extend its solidarity to the struggle of the peoples for national liberation."

LH asks Security Council to consider justice and sustainable development

2011-11-17T14:07:00.000+09:00

On 22 November 2011, the United Nations Security Council discuss UNMIT. La'o Hamutuk wrote to call Council's attention to some information and concerns. A slightly abridged version follows below, the original has footnotes but not links.

La’o Hamutuk
Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis
Rua Martires da Patria
Bebora, Dili, Timor-Leste

16 November 2011

Dear Distinguished Members of the United Nations Security Council:

The Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis (La’o Hamutuk) is a local civil society organization which has monitored and analyzed the mandates and activities of the United Nations in Timor-Leste since 2000, during four UN Missions. We frequently meet with UN officials and write to the Security Council, especially about the still unfulfilled promise by the international community to end impunity for crimes against humanity committed during the illegal Indonesian occupation between 1975 and 1999.

We have studied the Secretary-General’s recent report on UNMIT (S/2011/641) from January through September 2011 and would like to share some observations with you before your debate next week. We believe that the report leaves out some important issues, and would like to try to help give the Council a broader, deeper understanding of the situation in Timor-Leste and UNMIT.

Good Governance, Human Rights and Justice

The Secretary-General’s report is optimistic about the consolidation of peace, stability and development in Timor-Leste. That optimism is based on assurances by political and State leaders, superficial progress of the situation, and the efforts by the UN and other agencies to consolidate peace and stability through institutional and capacity building.

Unfortunately, there is often a gap between leaders’ words and what most citizens experience every day. Considering current realities here, the positive steps taken by UNMIT, other agencies and Timor-Leste’s government in recent years do not fully address people’s essential and long term needs.

Continuing impunity for past crimes undermines peace, stability and development. When accountability is ignored, institutional consolidation alone cannot overcome weaknesses which threaten to undo the accomplishments of UN missions in Timor-Leste over the last twelve years. We regret that the current report appears not to understand this fundamental principle.

The 2006 crisis should teach us a lesson, and similar crises can arise in future if impunity continues to flourish. Although the UN and others previously highlighted impunity for 1975-1999 crimes and the 2006 crisis as a cause of future instability, that lesson may have been forgotten. Even with functional state institutions working to maintain peace, stability and justice, the lack of accountability is a time bomb that can explode at any time. Stability requires every citizen to comply with the rule of law, and that everyone is confident that others will also do so. As we discuss below, impunity undermines this bedrock of democracy.

Socio-economic development

We remain concerned about the UN’s preoccupation with maintaining security through police and military force. As we wrote to the Security Council in February 2010:
“People feel secure when they can live without fear of crime, civil disorder, repression, starvation, disease, and other major disruptions to the lives of their families. Although some of these concerns can be addressed with ‘security forces,’ the more difficult and fundamental ones require inclusive, equitable service delivery and economic development. Indeed, if significant numbers of people remain impoverished and alienated -- while a few enjoy the benefits of affluence and power -- no amount of bullying by men and women with guns can provide security.”

Last July, La’o Hamutuk expressed this concern to the Development Partners Meeting in Dili:
“Avoiding or preventing physical conflict should not be the primary dimension for measuring effectiveness of a government or donor program. Improving the quality of people’s lives –as defined by international standards for human rights (economic and social as well as civil and political) – is also relevant. Starvation, diarrhea, kidney disease and toxic pollutants can be just as fatal as bullets, and far more Timorese people are killed by preventable diseases than by violence. For example, the great majority of the more than 2,000 Timorese children under five who die every year are victims of avoidable or curable conditions, while homicide took only 39 lives in Timor-Leste 2010.”

We regret that the Secretary-General’s report and UNMIT itself fail to give enough attention to atrocious sanitation, nutrition and health care that kill and injure far more people than causes which can be addressed by soldiers and police officers. We encourage the Security Council to give more attention to human resource development (education and health), agriculture and non-oil industrial development which can free this country from import dependency and reduce poverty sustainably, over the long term.

Unfortunately, the National Priorities and Millennium Development Goals deal more with organizational structures than effective measures, and budget allocations by Timor-Leste’s government and development partners fail to comply with these priorities or adequately address these goals, spending the lion’s share of their resources on physical infrastructure and policing.

The Millennium Development Goals-Suco program to build five houses per year in each sub-village is problematic. Not only is it costing more than twice the budgeted amount, but the use of imported, prefabricated houses undercuts local industrial and economic development and the sustainability of these homes. La’o Hamutuk discussed this in our recent submission to Parliament on the proposed State Budget for 2012.

We appreciate the publication of the long-awaited 2011 UNDP National Human Development Report Managing Natural Resources for Human Development: Developing the Non-Oil Economy to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals, but regret that UNDP retreated when the Government attacked the report, removing it from UNDP’s website (it is still available from La'o Hamutuk) and failing to publish a Tetum version.

The Secretary-General’s report mentions that state expenditures are driving strong economic growth, but fails to discuss inequalities inherent in this growth, which is largely concentrated in the capital and among companies receiving government contracts. The living conditions of the majority of our people, outside the capital and not among the upper class, have barely improved or gotten worse. Although cash transfers have helped some avoid starvation, this will be unsustainable when already-declining oil and gas revenues run out in about 12 years. Timor-Leste’s non-oil private sector today consists almost entirely of subsistence agriculture, importers and government contractors. If local production to replace imports and add value to agricultural products is not improved, poverty will increase drastically when the oil revenues run out.

Timor-Leste’s total petroleum wealth could pay for public spending equivalent to $1.72/citizen/day for the next 40 years. The proposed $1.76 billion 2012 budget, a 35% increase over 2011, will spend at more than double that rate, and is enabled only by nonrenewable petroleum revenues. Timor-Leste has a billion-dollar non-oil trade deficit in goods and services; how can this continue after the oil and gas are used up?

La’o Hamutuk has expressed concerns about the new TimorGAP National Oil Company and the proposal to develop the “Tasi Mane” southwest coast petroleum infrastructure corridor. We believe that they are misguided and will not help Timor-Leste escape petroleum dependency, and encourage the Security Council and UNMIT to support Timor-Leste’s sustainable, non-oil development.

During the last decade, UN missions around the world, including in Timor-Leste, have learned lessons about drawing down and preparing for their termination. We hope that the UNMIT withdrawal from Timor-Leste next year will gain from these experiences. In particular, we urge continuing UN engagement in areas of economic development and human rights.

Refusing to accept permanent impunity

During the last 13 years, the UN has taken some actions to reduce impunity for crimes against humanity committed during the Indonesian occupation. This Council established the Serious Crimes Unit and Special Panels in 2000, but their mandate was unfortunately restricted the last ten months of the 24-year illegal occupation. The SCU indicted 391 people but was only able to bring 87 (all Timorese) to trial, convicting 84. The rest are shielded from accountability by Indonesia, and the UN has not taken effective action to end this violation of international law.

Unfortunately, the UN is not following its own principle – reaffirmed by the nations of the world in the Rome Statute – never to tolerate enduring impunity anywhere in the world. This betrayal is especially egregious in Timor-Leste, both because of the pervasive, prolonged nature of the crimes and because they were committed by agents of one state against citizens of another. The UN Security Council and General Assembly explicitly condemned them numerous times between 1975 and 1999.

As we move toward the end of UNMIT’s mission next year, the UN has unacceptably circumscribed the scope of UNMIT’s work to end impunity. In 2006, Security Council Resolution 1704 instructed UNMIT to finish investigations for 1999 cases not completed by the Serious Crimes Unit, establishing the Serious Crimes Investigation Team (SCIT) with no mandate to issue indictments or prosecute alleged perpetrators. Even if SCIT finishes its work before UNMIT ends, there is no avenue to achieve accountability. Indonesian officials continue to obstruct justice, and Timor-Leste’s leaders – responsible for a tiny, new nation which has suffered horrendously from crimes by its western neighbor – remain cautious without credible assurance of international support.

The July conviction and sentencing to nine years imprisonment of Besi Merah Putih militia member Valentim Lavio was not successful because the prolonged process and lack of pre-sentencing detention allowed him to flee to Indonesia; his co-indictee also remains at large. Once again, failures of the international community to prevent impunity have enabled a criminal to escape accountability.

Recommendations for the UN Security Council and UNMIT

Consider Timor-Leste as a test case for accountability for crimes against humanity, creating an opportunity to redeem the name of the United Nations by showing that the institution and its member states are serious about their promise never to tolerate impunity. One initial step would be to discuss and act on the recommendations of the 2005 Commission of Experts, which include the creation of international mechanisms when national ones are incapable of achieving accountability. In addition, the Security Council could extend SCIT’s mandate and duration to include investigating and prosecuting serious crimes committed as part of the Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste between 1975 and 1998, and allocating sufficient resources to this task.
Assist Timor-Leste’s economic development in a realistic, sustainable way which does not depend on temporary and capital-intensive petroleum infrastructure. In addition to supporting Government priorities and programs, the UN can provide expertise and longer-term perspectives for long-term, non-oil development. In particular, the UN could help Timor-Leste to develop its human resources – especially education and health care – to enable its future development.
Remember that during 2012, Timor-Leste’s government and citizens will be dealing with many pressing issues in addition to elections and UNMIT withdrawal, and look for ways that the United Nations and the international community can avoid neglecting other critical concerns.

UNMIT is likely to leave Timor-Leste a little over a year from now, but more than a million Timorese people will continue to live here, and deserve better support from the international community than they have received during the last 36 years.

Sincerely,
José Pereira, Inês Martins, Mariano Ferreira, Juvinal Dias, Charles Scheiner
La’o Hamutuk

Reflections 20 years after the Santa Cruz demonstration

2011-11-12T14:49:00.002+09:00

Reflections for the Progressive University Group
Twenty Year Santa Cruz Commemoration at Dili University
By Charles Scheiner, ETAN and La’o Hamutuk
11 November 2011 (translated from Tetum)
(Bele hetan Tetum no Ingles iha ne'e)

Thank you Maun Atino, and I appreciate the wisdom and history we just heard from two Antonios. I am grateful to the Klibur Universade Progresivu (KUP) for organizing this important event, and for inviting me to participate.

Tonight, I’m honored to be with so many young Timorese people who believe in justice and independence. Twenty years ago, brave people just like you peacefully demonstrated against the Indonesian occupation of your country. Nobody paid them, or ordered them, or told them it would be safe or easy.

The Santa Cruz protesters inspired people around the world, including me. I was in New York, and I heard about the massacre on community radio. Although I already knew about Indonesia’s illegal occupation here, and about the criminal support my Government was giving to it, I hadn’t done much to stop it.

A month after the Santa Cruz massacre, I and some other friends organized a peaceful protest at the Indonesian Mission to the UN. We didn’t risk being shot or tortured, but we knew we had to speak out in solidarity with the heroes of Santa Cruz who risked and lost their lives in the struggle for self-determination. It was much easier for us than it was for your parents – but it was also hard, because so many other Americans didn’t know or care that our Government was complicit with Indonesia in committing crimes against humanity in Timor-Leste.

Our demonstration grew into a movement – the East Timor Action Network (ETAN) – that had more than 15,000 members and 25 chapters all across the United States by 1999. Through public education, lobbying, demonstrations, outreach, coalition-building and every other kind of nonviolent action we could think of, we turned U.S. policy around. Washington had provided most of the weapons and training for the Indonesian military from 1975 until 1991, but pressure from American citizens cut it off. By 1998, the United States Government had abandoned Suharto and was supporting self-determination – helping to open a door for the people of Timor-Leste to finally end Indonesia’s occupation.

It’s 12 years later now, 20 years after the Santa Cruz massacre and the founding of the East Timor Action Network. RDTL has been independent for nine years. You have your own government, your own leaders, your own political debates, your own successes… and your own mistakes. I feel privileged to live here during this period, traveling that journey with you. Building a peaceful, democratic nation, with economic and social justice for its entire population, may be even harder than throwing out the Indonesian army and police.

We are still far from some of our goals. In particular, the foreigners responsible for crimes against humanity and war crimes committed against the Timorese people have not been held accountable.
These were international crimes – the Indonesian invasion of Portuguese Timor (RDTL after 28 November 1975, but Indonesian aggression started before that) violated international law, as dud the thousands of massacres, tortures, rapes, killings and other crimes that were part of the occupation. When people are ordered or paid by one government to commit crimes against people in another country, those are international crimes. When other governments, including my own, give political, military, diplomatic or financial support to these crimes, they also become criminals.

As a U.S. citizen (I am not yet a Timorese citizen, but hope to become one), I have to apologize to the people of Timor-Leste because I and my fellow Americans took so long to stop our Government from supporting crimes against you, while tens of thousands of Timorese people were killed. As a human being, I join the Timorese people – including survivors and victims’ families – in calling for an end to impunity for crimes against humanity.

A hero of my country – ex-slave Frederick Douglass – once said that “Power never concedes anything without a demand.” If we want justice, we have to demand it – it will not come by itself.

As you know, there was progress a few years ago. Between 1999 and 2005, Commissions of Inquiry established by the United Nations, Indonesia and Timor-Leste recognized the international nature of the huge crimes committed here and called for the prosecution of those who perpetrated them. During UNTAET, the UN Serious Crimes Unit indicted nearly 400 people for crimes committed during 1999, bringing 87 to trial and convicting 84. But everyone brought to trial was Timorese, and none of them are still in prison. None of the people who murdered Santa Cruz protesters twenty years ago were Timorese.

A larger problem is the 300 people indicted by the SCU who have never been arrested because Indonesia is sheltering them. And even more fundamental, no action has been taken against those who directed and executed the 99% of occupation-related crimes committed during its first 23 years. Those perpetrators were carrying out criminal policies of the Suharto dictatorship, and most of them were soldiers following orders from Jakarta, shooting guns made in the United States, flying bombers from Britain or the U.S., getting political support from Australia or Malaysia or France.

The United Nations says there must never be impunity for Crimes Against Humanity. In 2002, nations from all over the world established the International Criminal Court to try such crimes when national processes are unwilling or unable to – but unfortunately it has no power to judge crimes committed before the court was set up. In 2005, this global consensus was reflected by a UN Commission of Experts, who concluded that an international tribunal should be created if judicial processes in Indonesia and Timor-Leste fail to achieve justice for crimes committed during Indonesia’s occupation of Timor-Leste. But today, the UN runs away – they and the other responsible governments and agencies say that Timor-Leste’s Government has the responsibility but not the will to end impunity.

For some of us – Timorese and foreigners – the struggle is not over. We draw courage from people like Argentinian justice activist Patricia Isasa, who visited here last month. She campaigned for 33 years before her torturers and kidnappers were finally sent to prison.

Here, our justice campaign is only 12 years old. Although the UN, other Governments, and some Timorese politicians prioritize diplomatic relations with formerly hostile nearby Governments over justice, and although some say economic development is more important than accountability, there is no need to choose.

Relations between democratic states can go well even while criminals are brought to justice. People’s economic lives – including victims of past crimes -- can improve at the same time that masterminds of those crimes are brought to court. There is no need to choose among economic, social and criminal justice.

We, citizens of countries from around the world who support Timor-Leste’s people, will continue to demand that our governments and the United Nations keep their promises that impunity can never be accepted.

Today, ETAN issued a press release calling “for the U.S. and other governments and the United Nations to commit to justice for the victims and their families. The 1991 massacre was a major turning point in Timor-Leste’s struggle for liberation. When we saw and heard about the Indonesian military shooting down hundreds of peaceful, unarmed student protesters, we knew we had to do something to stop the killing. The Santa Cruz massacre inspired many around the world to work for justice for the East Timorese people.”

Earlier this week former General Taur Matan Ruak said “Justisa sei iha” (there will be justice). President Jose Ramos-Horta hopes that a courageous, young Indonesian prosecutor may bring high-level criminals to court five or ten years from now.

But it will never happen if we don’t continue to demand it. People in Timor-Leste, together with our friends in Indonesia, the United States and around the world, should see today’s anniversary as an opportunity – and a challenge – to renew our commitment to struggle for justice. Since neither the Indonesian nor Timor-Leste governments are yet ready to end impunity, it is up to us.

Obrigado. A luta continua!

Budget debate starts in Parliamentary Plenary

2011-11-11T01:48:00.000+09:00

On 9 November, Timor-Leste's Parliament began debating the $1.76 billion proposed state budget for 2012, a 35% increase over last year and the fastest-growing budget in the world (except for hyperinflation-plagued Zimbabwe). The Prime Minister presented the budget, and Parliament's Economics Committee C presented its report (Portuguese original).

Committee C's in-depth report includes hundreds recommendations from the other Parliamentary Committees. Committee C itself questions the macroeconomic foundations of the budget, its economic policy objectives, its excessive reliance on petroleum revenue, poor management of treasury funds and promotion of Public-Private Partnerships. The Committee asked for more information and studies before contracting public debt, and recommended better monitoring and control of the Petroleum Fund. It urged that the non-oil deficit not grow faster than non-oil GDP and encouraged development of the non-oil economy. After listing the possible benefits from a massive local housing construction project, the Committee lamented that the Government's plan did "not meet any of the criteria described" and would have no multiplier effect, with negative impacts. La'o Hamutuk raised many of these concerns in our submission to the Committee a few weeks ago, and we appreciate that the Parliamentarians agree with our analysis.

La'o Hamutuk's budget web page continues to provide comprehensive budget information, documents and analysis from all sources, including the two linked to above. We recently published two articles in local newspapers: Orsamentu Jeral Estadu 2012 ha’belit liu tan Malisan Rekursu ba Timor-Leste and Compania Investimentu Timor-Leste, Investe ka Fakar Osan?

The Ministry of Finance has also opened a web page on the daily budget debate, which is being broadcast live on TVTL. While we welcome the additional transparency, we regret that the Ministry's page includes only material issued by the Government.

TL unchanged in 2011 UNDP Human Development Index

2011-11-03T18:42:00.000+09:00

On 2 November, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) released their 2011 Human Development Report, entitled “Sustainability and Equity: A Better Future for All.” In addition to the thematic discussion and data on health, education, gender, economics and other factors, the UNDP calculates a “Human Development Index” (HDI) for each country. The HDI combines life expectancy, education (school enrollment) and gross national income (GNI) to produce a composite measure of human development.

The 2011 HDI for Timor-Leste is 0.495, which attempts to describe the situation here in 2009, and gives Timor-Leste a rank lower than 147 out of 187 countries with data. This is essentially the same as last year, when a score of 0.491 produced the same rank. Comparing HDI scores from different years is challenging, as UNDP often changes the methodology used to calculate them, as shown in the above graph and explained on La'o Hamutuk's website.

Unfortunately, reliable statistical data on this country is hard to get, and the 2010 census results were released too late to use them. Similarly, economists have to depend on projections from 2007 until the living standards survey currently in process is published in 2012. Even more problematic, the HDI for Timor-Leste still uses 2001 information about expected years of schooling; rendering the education component of HDI meaningless for analysis over time.The health component of Timor-Leste's HDI -- life expectancy -- is extrapolated from the 2004 census, and therefore doesn't reflect events during the past seven years. Timor-Leste's HDI essentially represents oil and gas revenues -- increasing as production ramped up in 2005-2008, and declining as inflation erodes purchasing power in recent years.

La'o Hamutuk is concerned about the attention given to numbers generated by flawed methodologies, as well as with politically-motivated boasts and attacks which often defy credibility. We know that Timor-Leste has many people in poverty, that we are still nearly entirely dependent on imports, and that local economic and agricultural production is far below where it should be. Looking around, we see unacceptable levels of education and health care and a budget which prioritizes physical infrastructure over human development.

Our only producing oil and gas fields will run dry in 12 years, and we don't need numbers to understand what that means. Petroleum income pays for 90% of the state budget, which is growing faster than every country except Zimbabwe.

Acting Audit Court reviews 2010 State Accounts

2011-10-28T15:38:00.000+09:00

Under Timor-Leste's 2009 Budget and Financial Management Law, the High Administrative, Tax and Audit Court is responsible to review the annual audited report of State Finances. Since the HATAC hasn't been established yet, the Appeals Court is doing its function. On 20 October 2011, the Court sent Parliament its Opinion (Portuguese original) on the 2010 State Accounts, and on 28 October, Parliament Committee C held a hearing with the Minister of Finance. La'o Hamutuk wrote a letter (also Tetum) with some of our concerns about the Opinion, which is abridged below:

We do not understand or agree with the Court’s concluding Opinion that the state accounts are valid. The court identified too many fundamental flaws, and we describe several others below, to reach this conclusion.

The Court should have been given more information than the Government provided, as the current Opinion points out. We encourage Government to be more forthcoming to the Court, Parliament and the public. We support the Court's recommendations for a more disaggregated, comprehensive and accurate system to manage and report on state finances, as well as for better systems for reconciliation and control of cash.

Rapid budget growth is a symptom of the resource curse. During 2008-2012, Timor-Leste’s State Budget grew faster than any nation in the world except Zimbabwe, and it is not sustainable, manageable or producing good results. The 2010 mid-year budget was an extreme case, which transferred a lot of money out of the Petroleum Fund without a valid reason, sacrificing future generations for current greed.

Taking more than the Estimated Sustainable Income (ESI) from the Petroleum Fund for short-term convenience violates both the Petroleum Fund Law and good policy. It is illegal to withdraw money from the Petroleum Fund merely to increase the balance in the Treasury account for the following year. During December 2010, the Ministry of Finance directed the BPA to transfer $211 million from the Fund, although the Treasury contained enough for several months’ expenses. At the end of the year, the Treasury Account held $340 million dollars, the highest amount in Timor-Leste’s history.

The Court recommended that donor assistance be included in this review and in the State’s budget execution reports. We do not share this view, except for possible future direct budgetary support from donors.

The Court mentions evidence of possible violations of law. We hope that they provide full information to the Anti-Corruption Commission.

The end-of-the-year budget execution rush is bad policy. The graph at right shows the 235 contracts over $250,000 that Timor-Leste signed during 2010, totaling nearly $700 million. Nearly half (107) were signed during November and December. Hasty spending before the fiscal year ends often leads to waste, corruption and poor outcomes.

The Court should have discussed the largest outlay in 2010, the national electricity project. La’o Hamutuk has written extensively about this debacle, but we remain hopeful that Timor-Leste will learn from it. Timor-Leste signed a $330 million (later increased to $406 million) contract without competitive bidding on 15 September 2010 with Puri Akraya Engineering to build the power stations. The previous December, Timor-Leste’s largest contract ever ($367 million) was signed with Chinese Nuclear Industries No. 22 (for the same power plants and the national high voltage grid), which was reduced to $298 million when PAE was contracted. These two contracts totaled $629 million at the end of 2010 (they are still increasing; today the total project cost is around a billion dollars and rising).

Parliament had not approved the outlays obligated by these contracts, which are ten times more than the 2010 budget says. The 2010 mid-year budget adjustment appropriated $60 million for this project during 2010 (budget execution reports say that $90 million was spent), but omitted multi-year costs. The original 2010 budget gives a project cost of $48 million, with no expenditures listed after 2010.

To avoid repeating similar violations, we encourage Government to implement a system to provide accurate information to Parliament and the public about total expected costs of multi-year projects and future contractual obligations, including alterations while the projects are being implemented.

We discussed many of these issues in more detail in our submission to Parliament last week on the proposed 2012 State Budget.

Public Meeting/Enk. Publiku with Patricia Isasa

2011-10-26T15:03:00.000+09:00

Tetum iha kraik
Argentinian torture survivor and human rights activist has been in Timor-Leste for a few weeks, meeting with victims, justice campaigners and officials in Suai, Maliana and Dili, sharing her experience of a successful, 33-year struggle to bring her torturers to justice. Although she was 'disappeared' in 1976 and imprisoned for more than two years, it took until 2009 for an Argentinian court to convict six of "her" perpetrators and sentence them to long prison terms.

Patricia will share her experiences in a public meeting "Forgetting Past Crimes Strangles Justice Today and Tomorrow." The meeting, which is free and open to the public will be in Tetum and English.

Friday, 28 October, 9:00 am - 1:00 pm
at CAVR (ex-comarca/prison), Balide, Dili

Speakers:

Patricia Isasa: "Strategies and Challenges in Struggling for Justice"

Ines Martins: "Justice for Timor-Leste is still an Unresolved International Obligation"

=============================================================

Relasiona ho Visita Aktivista Justisa Sra. Patrisia Isasa mai iha Timor Leste iha fulan ida nia laran, atu fahe ninia esperensia no ninia hanoin konaba luta kontra Ditadura Militar iha Arjentina iha tempu neba to hetan duni justisa ba ninia an hodi hatama autor nebe halo violensia kontra nia no povu Arjentina ba Tribunal to tama ba Komarka.

Bazeia ba esperensia nebe mak Timor Leste mos infrenta iha tempu pasadu iha okupasaun Indonesia nia ukun ho Ditadura Militar, ami husi Lao hamutuk organiza Enkontru Publiku iha Dili ho topiku jeral “Haluha Krime Pasadu, Hamate Justisa iha Agora no Futuru”. Ba Enkontru publiku nee, ami nakloke hodi konvida ita boot sira atu mai partisipa hodi rona no mos fahe Esperensia ba malu atu nune ita hamutuk luta ba hakotu korenti Impunidade nebe mak agora buras iha rai doben Timor Leste.
Enkontru Publiku nee sei halao iha ;

Loron        : Sesta-feira, 28 Outobru 2011
Fatin        : STP- CAVR (ex. Komarka Balide)
Oras        : 08:30 - 13:00

Narador mak

Sra. Patrisia Isasa : ho topiku Estrategia no Dezafiu luta ba krime Pasadu hodi hetan Justisa

Ines Martins husi Lao Hamutuk : ho topiku Justisa ba Timór-Leste Nafatin Nu'udar Obrigasaun Internasionál ida ne'ebé Seidauk Atínje.

LH to PN: 2012 Budget proves the Resource Curse is here

2011-10-23T13:18:00.000+09:00

Timor-Leste Parliament's Committee C (Economy) held a hearing on the proposed 2012 State Budget last Friday, with testimony from La'o Hamutuk and other NGOs.
(L-R around table: MPs Manuel Tilman, Aderito Hugo da Costa and Cipriana Pereira. Guteriano Neves, Alexandra Arnassalon, Charles Scheiner and Juvinal Dias from La'o Hamutuk.)

We presented a 16-page submission (full text in Tetum and English) with the following main points:

The Resource Curse is truly here.

The “Dutch disease” of inflation, currently over 13%, exacerbates poverty in Timor-Leste.
We continue to neglect non-oil development and depend on imports.
Our people are our most important resource, but the budget will cut the share for health and education while infrastructure mega-projects get most of the money.
The MDG-Suco program exemplifies careless budget practices.

We should learn from Timor-Leste’s past experiences.

Timor-Leste is a world leader in budget escalation, with a 407% four-year increase second only to Zimbabwe.
The budget will spend 7.2% of our petroleum wealth from the Petroleum Fund, more than double the Estimated Sustainable Income. By 2014, Petroleum Fund withdrawals will be larger than oil revenues deposited into the Fund.
Special Funds continue to erode Parliamentary authority, and the Budget documents are not accurate or complete about how the Infrastructure Fund is being used.
Parliament needs complete information on expected project costs, such as the $950 million national electricity project, the $1.4 billion south coast highway, and other elements of the Tasi Mane petroleum infrastructure project.
Electricity continues to dominate, receiving more than $370 million, with results lower than expectations.
Agriculture deserves more than 1% of the budget, since it is the livelihood of more than 80% of our population.

Some new developments give more reason for concern.

Parliament needs more information before approving borrowing. This budget is the first request to authorize loans, $33 million, but future loans will be much larger.
The Tasi Mane project could be a multi-billion-dollar white elephant.
The South Coast Highway will eat up another billion or more.
The Timor-Leste Investment Company gets $200 million, which may be squandered on futile, useless, money-losing projects.

Our submission included 21 recommendations for Timor-Leste's Parliament:

“Take context as the starting point” is the first Fragile States Aid Effectiveness Principle. Parliament and Government should recognize that Timor-Leste is experiencing the Resource Curse, and take effective actions to prevent it from getting worse. In particular, plan realistically for continuing inflation and improve domestic productive capacity so that our resource wealth stays in our country.
Give more attention to sustainable non-oil economic development which can benefit large numbers of people. This will be primarily based on agriculture, replacing import dependency and transient oil revenue, producing results which are equitably shared among our population.

Give more attention to human resource development, especially education and health, focusing on actual results rather than statistics for international agency scores.
Do not approve additional funding for the MDG-Suco housing program until you have accurate information about past and expected future expenditures and the number of houses to be constructed.
Pay more attention to the negative environmental, social and economic impacts of industrialization, especially on people living near industrial or large infrastructure projects.
Keep spending within sustainable levels, based on prudent projections of future oil prices, rather than the 7.2% of estimated petroleum wealth the Government is asking for. Avoid massive budget increases, keeping withdrawals from the Petroleum Fund within the 3% Estimated Sustainable Income. (If new investment strategies produce much higher returns, this could be revisited in future budgets.)
Exercise Parliamentary fiscal oversight over the implementation of the liberalized investments enabled by the recent revision of the Petroleum Fund Law. Evaluate the sustainability of the fund, given actual spending levels and realistic expectations of returns on Fund investments.
Before appropriating additional money for the Infrastructure Fund, demand a complete accounting of how the Fund was used during 2011, including what money was spent differently from the proposal in Budget Book 6 of the 2011 budget. Request more detail than one-line project descriptions on how the Government plans to use the $746 million it wants to add to the Infrastructure Fund in 2012.
Do not approve the budget until the Government provides expenditure projections based on actual plans, rather than econometric models, with full life cycle costs and projected rates of return on multi-year physical infrastructure projects. Request complete cost and financing information for the implementation of the National Strategic Development Plan before approving money to carry it out.

Request more information on the completion of construction and operation of the national electricity project, especially the heavy oil power plants. How much fuel will be required, what are operational and maintenance expenses, will this be contracted out or done by EDTL (or Manitoba), how much will ratepayers be expected to pay, what is the anticipated need for continuing subsidies from the state budget?
Encourage policies which support food sovereignty and sustainable agriculture, increasing Timorese farmer’s human resources to enable them to enhance and diversify their production and add value to their products.
Taking into consideration the experiences of other indebted developing countries, require information on all prospective loans before approving borrowing, including the sources, interest rates, conditionalities, collateral, default provisions and repayment schedules. Ask the Government to provide the proposed loan agreements.
For projects which will be financed through loans, review the preliminary designs, financial analysis and projected rates of return.
Do not appropriate funding for Tasi Mane project construction, including the supply base, until a solid economic cost/benefit analysis has been presented and discussed by Parliament. This needs to be more substantive and realistic than the glossy visions of the SDP, and should include accurate and detailed cost information and revenue and employment projections for the full project cycles.

Before spending more money on the South Coast Highway, request information on expected traffic, total project costs, maintenance expenditures, associated loans, and land use.
Before approving $100 million for the Suai Supply Base, review the plans, including expected customers and rates of return. Ask TimorGAP to provide a business and operational plan for this project, as well as a detailed design and economic spin-off projections, since they will be the eventual beneficiary of Parliament’s appropriation of the money.
Do not approve funding for the Betano refinery and petrochemical plant until Parliament and the local community has had the opportunity for free, prior and informed consent over the actual amounts of land that will be used and the area affected.
Insist that a legitimate Environmental Impact Assessment and Environment Management Plan be conducted for every component of the Tasi Mane project, as well as for the Betano power and related infrastructure.
Implement Parliament’s Constitutional responsibilities by enacting laws to bring the TimorGAP national oil company and the Timor-Leste Investment Company under Parliamentary oversight.
Do not approve investment capital for the Timor-Leste Investment Company until it has been established and presented its regulations to Parliament, with adequate transparency, checks and balances and oversight. Before significant capital is approved, request a well-thought-out business plan, including analysis of capital and operational costs and expected return for each project to be financed by TLIC.
Make budgetary decisions based on facts, rather than on political propaganda, and encourage the Government to provide accurate information about our economy rather than campaign promises.

Click for more information, documents and analysis on the proposed budget (mos Tetum).

Highway dreams -- and their costs

2011-10-20T18:50:00.000+09:00

For the last few years, La’o Hamutuk reported on the most expensive Government project in Timor-Leste’s history. The ill-conceived, poorly-planned, mismanaged and badly implemented national electricity project includes two heavy oil power plants and a high voltage grid. Even if there are no more cost overruns, this project will cost Timor-Leste more than $950 million dollars to construct ($443 million has already been spent) – plus hundreds of millions more for fuel, operation and maintenance.

Timorese policy-makers think big, and the electricity mega-project is about to be eclipsed by the South Coast Highway between Suai and Beacu, part of the Tasi Mane petroleum infrastructure corridor. Cars and 10-ton trucks will speed along its two carriageways at 100 km/hour, completing the 152-km trip in less than two hours.

Timor-Leste paid PT Virama Karya nearly a million dollars for a “Preliminary, Detailed Design and Environmental, Social and Economic Assessment” of this road, which was done in association with Multi Arch, LDA. A few weeks ago, the consultants presented their 75-volume report to the Government. They estimate construction costs at $9.2 million per kilometer (about 20% less than similar roads in Indonesia) for a total outlay of $1.39 billion.

The proposed 2012 State Budget describes some of the expenditures for this project, although we believe they are understated (see table at right). This total, $767 million, is about half of what Virama Karya says the road will cost. If may be intended to pay for just a single carriageway, as the Strategic Development Plan suggests that the lanes may be built one at a time.

La’o Hamutuk estimates that the total cost of the road during its 30-year life (including construction, loan interest, and maintenance) will be $1 billion for a single-carriageway road, and $1.7 billion if both carriageways are built.

Today, traffic along this route is less than 100 cars and trucks each day. If we optimistically assume tremendous growth due to the Tasi Mane project, this could increase by a factor of ten, to 1,000 per day. If the Virama Karya design is built and partly financed with concessional loans, each car or truck driving the length of the highway will benefit from a state subsidy of $156, more than a dollar per vehicle-kilometer. (Even if only one carriageway is built, Timor-Leste will have paid 60c for each vehicle-kilometer travelled, or $91 for a car which drives its length.)

One way to recover some of this money would be to charge tolls on this highway, although this seems unlikely given the Government’s decisions to reduce fuel and import taxes and to subsidize electricity users. If motorists paid tolls about the same as are charged in Indonesia (about 4¢/km for cars and 12¢/km for trucks), the state could recoup about 10% of its outlay.

The money which will be spent on this highway – more than $1,000 for each Timorese citizen and more than two years of our non-oil GDP – could do a lot for the education and health of our people, building human resources which could sustain Timor-Leste for generations. Petroleum revenues enable the “resource curse,” and petroleum-fueled vehicles justify an "Easy Street" for spending them.

Key issues in the 2012 State Budget

2011-10-07T12:24:00.002+09:00

This page is condensed from a fuller discussion on La’o Hamutuk’s website, which links to the budget documents and includes more information and graphics.
On 21 October, La'o Hamutuk presented a submission on the State Budget to Parliament's economics committee.

Last week, Timor-Leste’s Government presented Parliament with a proposal to spend $1.76 billion during 2012, including $1.56 from the Petroleum Fund and $33 million in foreign loans.Timor-Leste's proposed 2012 budget is 35% larger than 2011, and is more than five times as large as the 2008 budget proposed four years ago. According to the IMF, Zimbabwe (with runaway inflation) is the only country in the world whose state budget grew faster during this time; Congo (DRC) places third with an increase of 3½ times.

The budget violates the principles of sustainable use of the Petroleum Fund, although it explains that Bayu-Undan oil and gas production is declining. The projected 2013 budget will spend as much from the fund as oil revenues will bring in.This year's Estimated Sustainable Income (ESI) is $665 million. This is $69 million lower than last year's, because the Government overspent the ESI during 2011 and because ConocoPhillips expects higher Bayu-Undan operating costs and lower future production. However, every state budget since 2009 has broken the 3% sustainable spending rule, which has more to do with public relations than with policy.

The proposed budget includes $33 million in loans for water and roads during 2012, with more in future years. This is the first time the Government has asked Parliament to approve borrowing. The budget proposal "does not show repayment because most of the loans have a ten year grace period." Over the next four years, the budget anticipates borrowing $447 million dollars. This is a small fraction of what will probably be needed to implement the Strategic Development Plan, but full information is not given. We urge the Government to provide information on the full costs of mega-projects like the Suai-Beacu highway before Parliament approves the budget and the loans, rather than repeating the mistakes of the Heavy Oil project.

In the 2012 budget, capital expenditures for electricity are $282 million (down from $447 million in 2011), although the new power plants require more money for generator fuel, from $46 to $89 million. Notwithstanding the increases in generating capacity and prepaid meter installations, EDTL gross revenues only to go up a little, from $14.5 to $16.1 million, requiring a $73 million subsidy (not including hundreds of millions in capital costs).

The Infrastructure Fund allocates $163 million to the Tasi Mane south coast petroleum infrastructure project. More than half of this is to build the Suai supply base for offshore oil operations, which is budgeted at $329 million between 2011 and 2014. The Government has just appointed Eastlog Holdings PTE to construct the supply base, which will become the property of the new TimorGAP national oil company. Another $45 million is allocated during 2011 for the Suai-Beacu highway, which is budgeted to absorb $547 from the Infrastructure Fund and $220 million in loans between now and 2016.

Timor-Leste 2012 State Budget continues to neglect Timor-Leste's human resources essential to economic development and quality of life. Only 6.3% of state expenditures will go for education, and only 2.9% for health. UNDP recently pointed out that countries making progress toward the MDGs spend about 28% of their budgets on education and health, concluding that “not enough priority is being accorded to education and health. If Timor-Leste is to move faster in achieving the MDGs in these areas, then the share of social services in the budget will have to be virtually doubled.” The 2012 budget moves in the opposite direction, reducing the budget allocation for these social services from 9.6% of the 2011 budget to 9.2% for 2012.

The Decree-Law establishing a state-owned investment company went into force two weeks ago, and the Timor-Leste Investment Company (CITL) will be capitalized with $200 million from the 2012 State Budget. CITL is intended "promote the development of investment opportunities and national wealth growth, leading important strategic projects with significant commercial impact." Like Singapore’s Temasek, “CITL is a state owned enterprise with profit seeking objectives. It is owned by the Government but functions on a commercial basis." CITL is empowered to incur debt by issuing bonds; it can also purchase shares in other companies.

The 2012 Budget gives examples of possible CITL projects:

An undersea internet cable to another country “which could make Timor-Leste a world leader in internet access.”
Hotels and other projects “to commence the beginning of tourism.”
A high-rise office building to offer below-market rents to private and Government tenants.
A “Shopping complex of high quality to stimulate tourist potential.” Timor-Leste’s “nearly duty free (status) will allow lowest cost prices in the region, which will compete for tourists seeking high quality products.”

La'o Hamutuk believes that these CITL projects have negligible benefits for most of Timor-Leste's people, and do not merit $200 million -- more than the total 2012 expenditure for health, education and police.

Last year Timor-Leste appropriated $45 million for the MDG-Suco program to build 11,855 houses (five in each Aldeia) in 2011, which is to be repeated for five years. When the first year’s pre-fabricated houses was put up for bid in June, the lowest bid was $10,800 per house, more than twice the budgeted $4,000. The Government offered a $100 million contract to Carya Timor-Leste and Jonize Construction to import 9,237 houses. The 2012 budget repeats the unrealistic price estimates. It allocates $55 million for 2012 and $45 million annually for 2013-2015, but still plans to build 11,855 houses every year.

We welcome discussion and information on all aspects of the 2012 State Budget. The first Budget Book describes the motivations and assumptions underlying the budget, and all six books are downloadable from the La'o Hamutuk or Ministry of Finance websites.

Orsamentu Estadu 2012 loke inovasaun

2011-10-03T19:11:00.001+09:00

Iha loron 21 Outubro, La'o Hamutuk hato'o submisaun kona ba OJE2012 ba Parlamentu Nasional.

Orsamentu Jeral Estadu ba tinan eleisaun 2012 nian haksoit sai maka’as liu 35% ba orsamentu estadu 2011 ne’ebe maka’as mos. Proposta orsamentu biliaun $1.76 ne’e inklui imprestimus kiik primeira vez ba Timor-Leste. Mayor parte rendimentu ba orsamentu ne’e mai husi Fundu Petroleu ho montante biliaun $1.59, maske estimasaun Governu ba rendimentu sustentavel ne’ebe atu foti husi Fundu Petroleu iha biliaun $0.67 deit.

Governu aprezenta orsamentu ba Parlamentu iha Sesta-Feira semana kotuk, hodi hadiak pratika pasadu, hodi publika tiha ona iha website Ministeriu Finansas. Ami rona katak ida ne’e akontese tamba iha preokupasaun katak website La’o Hamutuk bele sai tan fontes de facto ba Orsamentu Estadu. Ami sente orgulhu hodi partisipa iha kompetisaun ida ne’e, no publika ona tan dokumentus orsamentu nian ida ne’ebe fasil atu bele asesu ba iha pajina web la’o Hamutuk nian kona-ba orsamentu estadu 2012 (mos iha Ingles), ne’ebe sei inklui analiza no komentariu durante iha semana balun oin mai.

2012 Budget breaks new ground

2011-10-03T18:25:00.001+09:00

Soaring 35% above the already huge Timor-Leste State Budget for 2011, the proposed $1.76 billion State Budget for election year 2012 includes a little borrowing for the first time. The bulk of its revenue, $1.59 billion, comes from the Petroleum Fund, notwithstanding the Government's estimate of the sustainable withdrawal (ESI) from the fund at only $0.67 billion.

The Government presented the budget to Parliament last Friday and, in an improvement over past practice, has already posted the budget documents on the Ministry of Finance website. We have heard that this welcome increase in transparency is because they feared that La'o Hamutuk's website would again become the de facto budget source. We're honored to participate in that competition, and have posted the budget documents in a more accessible form to La'o Hamutuk's page on the 2012 budget (also Tetum), which will include analysis and commentary over the next few weeks.

On 7 October, we blogged a summary of some key issues in this budget.

Ativista justisa sei vizita TL husi Arjentina

2011-09-30T12:35:00.002+09:00

Telespetadór sira televizaun nian sei iha biban hodiaprende kona-ba susesu kampañia justisa ba krime sira hasoru umanidadenian.

TVTL sei hatudu filme El Cerco (Serku) kona-ba PatriciaIsasa ninia kampañia ba justisa iha Arjentina iha Domingo, 09 Outubru, tuku08:30 kalan. [Ami husi deskulpa tanba TVTL la tuir sira nia promete atu hatudu filme iha loron 1 Outubro.] Filme ne’e iha dalen Español ho subtítulu iha dalen Inglés noTetun.

Patricia Isasa nu’udar organizadora estudante hotinan 16 iha Santa Fé, Arjentina, bainhira polisia no soldadu sira kaer na’oknia no tortura, no hatama nia ba prizaun la prosesu durante tinan rua ho baluniha ida hosi sentru sira detensaun no tortura klandestina 585 ne’ebé hariidurante tempu ditadura. Depois batalla legál hodi lori ninia torturadór sira bajustisa, ema na’in neen hosi sira ne’ebé tortura nia simu sentensa ho tinannaruk iha prizaun iha tinan 2009. Sira balun nu’udar majór no juís durantedekada tolu entre bainhira sira komete krime no bainhira hetan justisa.

La’o Hamutuk organiza hatudu filme ida ne’e ba preparasaunvizita Patricia Isasa nian mai Timor-Leste iha Outubru, ne’ebé sei inkluiko’alia haleu nasaun ka enkontru ho komunidade no eventu balun iha Dili. Sra.Isasa sei fahe ninia esperiénsia kona-ba ninia susesu luta ba hakotuimpuniade iha Arjentina liuhosi lori perpetradór sira krime sériu nian bajulgamentu no preizaun. Ninia esperiénsia sei fó esperansa no motivasaun ba ema Timoran sira ne’ebé kontinua sofre hosi klima impunidade ne’ebé iha daudaun bakrime sira hasoru umanidade ne’ebé komete durante tinan 24 nia laran hosiokupasaun Indonézia iha Timor-Leste.

Hakarak informasaun tan, ka atu organiza hatudu filme ne’eka hasoru malu ho Sra. Patricia Isasa, favor ida kontaktu Jose Pereira iha La’oHamutuk: jose@laohamutuk.org ka3321040 ka 736-7518.

Argentina justice activist to visit Timor-Leste

2011-09-30T12:16:00.002+09:00

Timor-Leste television viewers will have an opportunity to learn about a successful campaign for justice for crimes against humanity.

TVTL will broadcast the film El Cerco (The Circle) about Patricia Isasa's work for justice in Argentina on Sunday, 9 October, at 8:30 pm. The film is in Spanish with English and Tetum subtitles. [We apologize that TVTL did not broadcast the film on 1 October, as they had promised.]

Patricia Isasa was a 16-year-old student union organizer in 1976 in Santa Fe, Argentina, when she was kidnapped by police and soldiers and tortured and held prisoner without trial for two-and-a-half years at one of the 585 clandestine detention and torture centers set up during the dictatorship. After a long legal battle to bring her torturers to justice, six of the people who tortured her were sentenced to decades in prison in 2009. Some of them had become mayor and judges during the three decades between when they committed their crimes and when justice was finally achieved.

La'o Hamutuk has arranged for this broadcast in preparation for Patricia Isasa's visit to Timor-Leste later in October, which will include a speaking tour around the country and several events in Dili. Ms. Isasa will share experiences of her successful struggle to achieve accountability in Argentina by bringing perpetrators of serious crimes to trial and prison. Her victory gives hope and motivation to Timor-Leste's people who continue to suffer from the ongoing impunity for crimes against humanity committed during 24 years of Indonesian occupation of Timor-Leste.

For more information, or to arrange a showing of the film or a meeting with Patricia Isasa, please contact Jose Pereira at La'o Hamutuk: jose@laohamutuk.org or 3321040 or 7367518.

Comment on Basic Environment Law, Take 2

2011-09-22T18:32:00.002+09:00

Komentariu ba Lei Baziku Ambiental, ba dala rua (Tetum iha kraik)

The heavy oil power plant at Hera is being
built without complying with environmental laws.
Sentral eletrika oleo pezadu ne’e hari’i dadaun hela lahoo tuir lei ambiental.

Last February, Timor-Leste's National Environment Directorate (DNMA) circulated a draft of Timor-Leste's proposed Base Law on Environment. La'o Hamutuk used input from many people to write a 42-page submission. DNMA realized that the law was not ready for enactment, and made many changes.

On 20 September 2011, the DNMA circulated a revised draft (Portuguese). They asked for comments within two weeks, prior to submission to the Council of Ministers. DNMA gave La'o Hamutuk permission to circulate the draft on our website, and we have also done a quick, unofficial, English translation.

The new draft is significantly improved over the February version, but would still benefit from additional input. We encourage everyone interested in protecting Timor-Leste's environment to look it over. If you have thoughts, you can send them to DNMA directly.

Update: On 7 October, La'o Hamutuk submitted our comments on the September draft to DNMA.

Link to the February draft of the law, as well as analysis and commentary
-------------
Iha Fevereiru liu ba, Diresaun Nasional Meio Ambiente (DNMA) fahe esbosu ida kona ba proposta Lei Baziku Ambiental Timor-Leste. La’o Hamutuk uza hanoin sira ne’ebe mai husi ema barak atu hakerek submisaun ho pajina 42. DNMA realiza katak lei ne’e seidauk pronto atu envigor, no halo mudansa barak.

Iha 20 Setembru 2011, DNMA fahe esbosu ne’ebe hetan revizaun iha Portugese. Sira husu komentariu iha semana rua, molok hato’o ba Konseilu Ministeriu atu hetan aprovasaun. DNMA fo lisensa ba La’o Hamutuk atu fahe esbosu ne’e iha ami nia website, no ami halo tradusaun Ingles ho lalais no la ofisial. Ami husu deksulpa tanba seidauk iha tradusaun ba Tetum.

Esbosu foun ne’e hadiak ho signifikante kompara ho versaun iha Fevereiru, maibe sei iha benefisiu nafatin atu hetan hanoin adisional sira. Ami enkouraza ema hotu ne’ebe interese ba protesaun ambiente Timor-Leste nian atu tau matan ba lei ne'e. Karik ita boot sira hakarak atu ajuda La’o Hamutuk atu dezenvolve idea ba ami nia submisaun, favor haruka ita boot sira nia sujestaun iha karta eletroniku ba environment@laohamutuk.org molok loron 30 Setembru.

Liga ba esbosu lei iha Fevereiru, no mos analiza no komentariu.

Hamos vidru iha Portal Aprovisionamentu

2011-09-20T22:55:00.001+09:00

Iha konferensia Inisiativa Transparensia iha Industria Ekstrativa (EITI) iha fulan kotuk, Ministra Finansa loke oituan sesaun foun Portal Transparensia nian kona-ba aprovisionamentu. La’o Hamutuk apresia ba inisiativa ne’e, ne’ebe sei lori Timor-Leste ba iha diresaun ne’ebe los, aumenta informasaun publiku no hamenus posibilidade ba kolusaun no korupsaun.

Maske dalaruma susar atu utiliza no presiza asesu internet, Portal ne’e kompostu husi informasaun sira ne’ebe iha valor kona-ba kontratu sira ne’ebe asina durante tinan tolu liu ba. Ami download ona informasaun sira husi portal ne’e kona-ba kontratu 288 ne’ebe nia valor kada projeitu nian tokon $250 ba leten no tau iha spreadsheet ho tu-tuir malu ne’ebe bele halo informasaun ne’e sai fasil atu hetan asesu.

Husi biliaun $1,100 iha lista kontratu nian, miliaun $844 (inklui kontratu ne’en husi kontratu boot hitu) gasta ona ba eletrisidade. Kontratu boot ne’ebe entrega iha fulan Setembru liu ba hamutuk tokon $406 ba Puri Akraya Engineering atu hari sentral eletrisidade oleo pezadu iha Hera no Betano. Infelizmente, kontratu ida ne’e laiha tenderizasaun publiku no asina deit ho kompania ne’ebe foin harii husi Indonezia, ne’ebe nia asoens 69% kaer husi kompania ida husi Ilha Virgin Britaniku nian, “Dooks Group Holding Ltd.”

Portal la hatudu sai projeitu barak ne’ebe nakloke ba tenderizasaun

Infelizmente portal ne’e la inklui buat barak kona-ba “Oportunidade Negosiu,” maibe hatudu deit tenderizasaun nakloke tolu, rua husi ne’e taka ona iha Agustu. No iha parte seluk Tenderizasaun Foun iha website Ministeriu Finansa nian hatudu tenderizasaun nakloke hat, no hat seluk hein atu fo kontratu.

Tenderizasaun nakloke iha parte Ministeriu Finansa nian inklui ida ba konsultan atu halao Avaliasaun ba Impaktu Ambiental ba projeitu infraestrutura petroleu Tasi Mane.

Dalaruma ida ne’ebe interesante liu mak 'intende atu entrega' kontratu tokon $100 hodi importa 9,237 uma pre-fabrikadu ba programa MDG-Suco ne’ebe sei hari uma lima iha kada aldeia iha Timor-Leste durante tinan 2011. Kontratu ba Carya Timor-Leste no Jonize Construction ne’e liu dala rua ba montante tokon $44.6 ne’ebe aloko husi Orsamentu Jeral Estadu 2011 nian ba projeitu ne’e. Tenderizasaun orizinal (dokumentu konkursu 3.5 MB), atu importa no harii uma 11,855 ho $4,000 ba kada uma, maibe kontratu ne’ebe foin dadaun ne’ebe asina ne’e halo kustu kada uma sei sai ba $10,800. Governu hamenus numeru uma nian hafoin Carya/Jonize halo tender ho tokon $144 “tamba ho orsamentu menus ne’be Governu hasoru.”

La’o Hamutuk konkorda ho kontrator lokal sira katak projeitu ida ne’e nudar lakon oportunidade ida atu uza osan povo nian hodi suporta servisu lokal no negosiu kiik sira, no uza material konstrusaun lokal, maske Governu hateten katak razaun atu importa "uma standar, pre-fabrikadu… atu kompleta konstrusaun ba uma foun sira iha tempu ida ne’ebe apertadu liu.” Aleinde ne’e, husu kompania ida deit atu importa no hari uma rihun sanulu esklui tiha negosiu kiik sira husi konkursu tenderizasaun nian. Ami mos kestiona ho parte material rezerva ne’ebe importa mai (suku cadang) no konhesimentu atu halo manutensaun ba uma sira ne’ebe harii ba povo iha area rural sira hodi hela ba bainhira kompania ne’ebe importa sasan sira ne’e sai ona.

Cleaning the glass on the Procurement Portal

2011-09-19T16:36:00.002+09:00

At the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) conference last month, the Minister of Finance unveiled the Transparency Portal's new section on procurement. La’o Hamutuk applauds this initiative, which moves Timor-Leste in the right direction, increasing public information and reducing possibilities for collusion and corruption.

Although sometimes cumbersome to use and requiring internet access, the Portal contains valuable information about contracts signed during the past three years. We have downloaded the Portal’s information on 288 contracts worth at least $250,000 each and put it in a sortable spreadsheet which may make it more accessible.

Of the $1,100 million in listed contracts, $844 million (including six of the largest seven contracts) was spent on electricity. The largest contract was awarded last September: $406 million to Puri Akraya Engineering to build the heavy oil power plants at Hera and Betano. Unfortunately, this contract had no public tender and was signed with a just-formed Indonesian company, 69% of whose shares are held by “Dooks Group Holdings Ltd.” of the British Virgin Islands.

Portal doesn’t show most projects open for bidding

Unfortunately the portal doesn’t yet include much about “Business Opportunities,” showing only three open tenders, two of which actually closed in August. On the other hand, Current Tenders on the Ministry of Finance website shows four open tenders, and four other intents to award contracts.

The open tenders on the MoF site include one for a consultant to conduct an Environmental Impact Assessment for the Tasi Mane petroleum infrastructure project.

Perhaps more interesting is the Intent to Award a $100 million contract to import 9,237 prefabricated houses for the MDG-suco program which will erect five houses in every aldeia (village) in Timor-Leste during 2011. The contract to Carya Timor Leste and Jonize Construction is for more than double the $44.6 million allocated for this project in the 2011 State Budget. The original tender (bidding document 3.5 MB), was to import and build 11,855 houses – at $4,000 per house – but the soon-to-be-awarded contract will cost $10,800 per house. The Government reduced the number of houses after Carya/Jonize bid $144 million, “due to a budget shortfall faced by the Government.”

La’o Hamutuk agrees with local contractors that this project is a lost opportunity to use public money to support local employment and small businesses, and to use local materials, notwithstanding the stated rationale for importing “standard, pre-fabricated houses ... to complete the construction of new houses within a tight timeframe.” In addition, requiring a single company to import/build ten thousand houses excludes small businesses from bidding. We also wonder about the availability of imported parts and skills to maintain the houses once rural people are living in them and the importer has moved on.

SERN seeks consultant to write Tasi Mane EIA

2011-09-16T15:31:00.001+09:00

Timor-Leste's government hopes to use petroleum resources and infrastructure as the principal driver to develop the nation's economy. The centerpiece of this vision, the Tasi Mane project, is outlined in the Strategic Development Plan. It will include several projects and three new towns along the south western coast of Timor-Leste:

Suai: Supply base area, Industrial estates, Nova Suai, Suai Airport, Crocodile farm

Betano: Refinery and Petrochemical complex, Petroleum city (Nova Betano)

Beaco: LNG Plant complex, Nova Beaco, Nova Viqueque, Viqueque airport.

On 25 August 2011, the National Procurement Commission invited bids from consultants to conduct Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for these projects. The deadline for submitting bids is 26 September, and bidding documents are available here.

La'o Hamutuk has created a new web page with photos, maps and links to relevant documents. In addition to an overview of the Tasi Mane project and EIA tender, the page discusses the project's implications for sustainable development in Timor-Leste, the $16 million in contracts already awarded, and the protest over land confiscation in Betano and the Government socialization in response.

We will continue to update this page, and welcome additional information. Thank you.

Valoriza Agrikultor sira-nia Lian no sira-nia Matenek

2011-09-09T16:08:00.001+09:00

Valuing Farmers' Words and Wisdom

La'o Hamutuk Lansa Relatoriu Konsultasaun ho Agrikultor-sira

Hare pajina web kona-ba lansamentu, ka download Relatoriu tomak ka aprezentasaun fo sai iha lansamentu.

La'o Hamutuk's Report on Consultation with farmers can also be downloaded in English.

Introdusaun tuir mai.
“Ami sente moris hanesan agrikultór husi tempu uluk to’o agora laiha mudansa ida, ami nia moris mak hanesan ne’e nafatin hela de’it, no dalaruma sai aat liu tan” hato’o agrikultór ida husi distritu Manufahi-Same.

“Ami la hatene saida mak Ministeriu Agrikultura nia planu, satán Orsamentu. Ami rona de’it dehan Parlamentu aprova osan juta ba juta (millões) maibé ami la hatene osan sira ne’e mout hotu ba ne’ebé?” Agrikultór ida husi Ermera hato’o nia frustrasaun.

"Agora ami konfuzaun tanba tempu la’o la hanesan bai-bain, maibé ami atu husu esplikasaun ba se?” Agrikultór ida husi Maliana koalia ho laran susar. “Tinan ne’e ami la kuda batar tanba udan la fo tempu, dalaruma ami sei hasoru hamlaha...”

Lian sira ne’ebé ami sita iha leten, mai husi konsultasaun durante besik tinan rua nia laran ne’ebé halo hahú iha tinan 2010. Relatóriu Konsultasaun ne’ebé ho titulu Valoriza Agrikultór Sira-nia Lian no Sira-nia Matenek, mosu liu husi konsultasaun klean ne’ebé La’o Hamutuk halo ho agrikultór no komunidade sira iha area rural kona-ba sira esperensia moris lor-loron nudar agrikultór no nudar komunidade iha area rural. Informasaun sira iha relatóriu hot-hotu mai husi agrikultór no komunidade sira. La’o Hamutuk fasilita de’it atu sira-nia lian ne’ebé sira hato’o mai La’o Hamutuk bele to’o duni ba na’i-ulun Governu sira no mos instituisaun la’ós Governu sira ne’ebé servisu ba dezenvolvimentu Timor-Leste nian. Iha asuntu barak ne’ebé agrikultór sira koalia no ami fiar katak sei labele reprezenta 100% sira-nia lian, maibé ami koko fahe buat ruma ba públiku, ba Governu Timor-Leste, ba Nasoens Unidas no nia Ajénsia sira, ba Doadores sira, Instituisaun Finanseiru Internasional sira, ba Organizasaun Naun Govermental sira no mos ba parte hotu ne’ebé involve iha prosesu dezenvolvimentu agrikultura Timor-Leste nian.

Relatóriu ne’e fahe ba parte haat:

Difikuldade ne’ebé agrikultór sira hasoru iha sira-nia moris loron no saida mak sira-nia forsa.
Suporta ne’ebé durante ne’e agrikultór sira simu husi Governu no instituisaun seluk.
Faktores sira ne’ebé durante ne’e sai fonte difikuldade ba agrikultór sira.
Rekomendasaun balu ba Governu no instituisaun sira ne’ebé halo servisu ba agrikultór sira.

Konsultasaun ne’e hala’o iha distritu Ermera, Bobonaro, Manufahi no Oecussi.

La’o Hamutuk hein katak prezensa relatóriu ida ne’e nian bele hadi’ak liu tan Governu no parte hotu nia servisu, nune’e bele hadi’ak duni ita boot sira-nia moris nudar agrikultór no nudar komunidade ne’ebé hela iha area rural.

Grupu Mundu Tomak Husu TL ne’ebe la iha tusan atu la Debe

2011-09-08T16:48:00.000+09:00

Tusan pendente bele ameasa Timór nia Futuru
Komunikadu Imprensa, 8 de Setembro 2011

Kontaktu: Juvinal Dias (La’o Hamutuk/Movimento Kontra Deve), +670-734-8703, juvinal@laohamutuk.org ka John M. Miller (ETAN), +1-718-596-7668; john@etan.org

8 de Setembro de 2011 – Organizasaun Naun Governmental sira hosi Timór-Leste no internasional ohin husu ba “Governu Timór-Leste atu mantein nasaun ne’ebe livre hosi deve no hases-an hosi impresta osan hosi kreditor internasional sira no mos atu proteze jerasaun futuru.”

Grupu sira ne’e argumenta katak “infez ita repete erru sira ne’ebé nasaun sub-dezenvolvida sira komete iha pasadu, iha ne’ebé sira luta ona durante dekade barak nia laran, Timór-Leste tenki aprende hosi esperiénsia hirak ne’e, ne’ebé dala barak lori naha todan ba sira nia emar sira.

Karta ida ne’e mos fo hanoin katak maski Timór-Leste iha riku soin petróleum ohin loron, “wainhira Timór-Leste nia mina no gas hotu iha menus de tinan 15 nia laran, no ita sei nafatin tenki selu fila fali tusan, ita nia oan no bei-oan sira sei sofre hosi konsekuensia hirak ne’e.”

Karta ida ne’e inisia hosi Movimentu Kontra Deve iha Timór-Leste (fasilita hosi La’o Hamutuk), no East Timór and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN) ne’ebe nia baze iha Estadus Unidus da Amerika (EUA).

Statementu kompletu iha Tetum no Inglesh hamutuk ho organizasaun sira ne’ebé asina bele hetan iha http://www.etan.org/news/2011/08debt.htm no http://www.laohamutuk.org/econ/debt/2011/11ETANMKDStmt5Sep2011.htm.

Statementu ida ne’e hetan suporta hosi organizasaun 117, husi nasaun 28. Rede internasional sira ho esperiensia luta naruk kontra naha todan deve nasaun sub-dezenvolvido sira nian asina hotu statementu ne’e, inklui: Focus on Global South, Jubilee South – Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development, Third World Network and CADTM International (Committee for the Cancellation of Third World Debt).

Grupu 20 iha Timór-Leste mak asina statementu ne’e, inklui Institutu Timór-Leste ba Monitor no Analiza Dezenvolvimentu (La’o Hamutuk), Forum ONG, Front Estudante, Forum Lider Comunitario, Fundasaun Haburas no ETADEP. Organizasaun sira hosi Sudeste Asiatiku, vizinho Timór-Leste nian, inklui WALHI - Friends of the Earth Indonesia, Freedom from Debt Coalition ¬ Philippines, International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) and EARTH (Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand).

Organizasaun seluk ne’ebe asina, inklui grupu sira ne’ebé advoka ba dezenvolvimentu sustentavel, mos suporta povo Timór-Leste iha tempu naruk nia laran, hanesan Jubilee EUA, International Platform of Jurists for East Timor, Oil Change International (EUA), Aidwatch (Australia), Friends of the Earth U.S., Bank Information Center (EUA), Tapol (Inglatera), CAFOD (Inglatera), Japan East Timor Coalition, and the Free East Timor Foundation (VOT, Utrecht, Olanda).

Rendimentu hosi mina-rai no gas fornese 95% ba rendimentu estadu Timór-Leste nian, halo nasauin ida ne’e sai nudar nasaun ho nia dependensia ba petroleu ne’ebe as liu iha mundu. Maski Timór-Leste seidauk impresta osan hosi nasaun seluk, ka instituisaun finanseiru internasional, governu Timór-Leste aprova ona lei balu atu bele deve, inklui Lei Orçamentu e Gestão Financeira 2009, no mos revizaun Lei Fundu Petróleum, no Lei foun ba Divida Públiku. Lei rua ne’e hetan aprovasaun semana rua liu ba. Iha inísiu fulan Agostu, Website Banku Dezenvolvimentu Asiátiku (ADB) publika proposta deve hamutuk $8.15 millaun ba Timór-Leste atu hadi’a rede dalan nasional Timór-Leste nian.

Movimentu Kontra Deve nudar koalisaun organizasaun sosiedade sivil ida iha Timór-Leste ne’ebé kontra Timór-Leste atu deve. ETAN mak organizasaun fo solidaridade ba povo Timór-Leste durante tinan 20 nia laran, ne’ebe nia base iha EUA.

Ita-boot bele nformasaun tan kona-ba Timor-Leste no deve iha Inglesh ka Tetum.

Groups worldwide urge debt-free TL not to borrow

2011-09-08T16:32:00.000+09:00

Pending loans could endanger Timor's future.

Press release, 8 September 2011

Contact: Juvinal Dias (La’o Hamutuk/Movimento Kontra Deve), +670-734-8703, juvinal@laohamutuk.org or John M. Miller (ETAN), +1-718-596-7668; john@etan.org

Timor-Leste and international organizations today urged "the government of Timor-Leste to keep the nation debt-free and refrain from borrowing money from international lenders.... to protect its future generations."

The groups argue that "Rather than repeat the mistakes of other developing countries that have struggled with debt during recent decades, Timor-Leste should learn from their experiences, which often inflicted great hardships on their people."

The letter warns that, despite Timor-Leste's current petroleum wealth: "When Timor-Leste's oil and gas run out in less than 15 years, and debts still must be repaid, Timor-Leste's children and grandchildren will suffer the consequences."

The letter was initiated by Timor-Leste's Movimento Kontra Deve (Movement Against Debt, facilitated by La’o Hamutuk) and the U.S.-based East Timor and Indonesia Action Network (ETAN).

The full text of the statement in Tetum and English with a complete list of signers can be found at http://www.etan.org/news/2011/08debt.htm and http://www.laohamutuk.org/econ/debt/2011/11ETANMKDStmt5Sep2011.htm.

The statement was endorsed by 117 organizations based in 28 countries. International networks with long experience in opposing onerous debt on developing countries are among the signers, including: Focus on the Global South, Jubilee South - Asia Pacific Movement on Debt and Development, Third World Network and CADTM International (Committee for the Cancellation of Third World Debt).

20 groups in Timor-Leste signed the statement, including the Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis (La’o Hamutuk), NGO Forum, Student Front, Community Leaders Forum, Haburas Foundation and ETADEP. Signing organizations from Timor-Leste’s southeast Asian neighbors include WALHI - Friends of the Earth Indonesia, Freedom from Debt Coalition Philippines, International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID) and EARTH (Ecological Alert and Recovery Thailand).

Other signers include sustainable development advocates and groups that have long supported the people of Timor-Leste, such as Jubilee USA, the International Platform of Jurists for East Timor, Oil Change International (USA), Aidwatch (Australia), Friends of the Earth U.S., Bank Information Center (USA), Tapol (U.K.), CAFOD (U.K.), Free East Timor Japan Coalition, and the Free East Timor Foundation (VOT, Utrecht, the Netherlands).

Income from oil and gas provides 95% of Timor-Leste's state revenue, making the country the most petroleum-export dependent in the world. Although Timor-Leste has not yet borrowed funds from other countries or international financial institutions, the government has passed several laws to enable borrowing, including the 2009 Budget and Financial Management Law, as well as revisions to the Petroleum Fund Law and the new Public Debt Law both passed just two weeks ago. In early August, the Asia Development Bank posted information on its website about a proposed $8.15 million loan to Timor-Leste to upgrade the national road network.

The Movimento Kontra Deve is a coalition of civil society organizations in Timor-Leste opposed to the country taking out loans. ETAN is a 20-year old U.S.-based group working in solidarity with the people of Timor-Leste.

Click for additional background on Timor-Leste and borrowing is in English and Tetum.

Wikileaks: Governu Estadus Unidus no Timor-Leste

2011-09-07T12:55:00.000+09:00

[Link to this blog entry in English.]

Iha semana balun liu ba, Wikileaks publika sira nia koleksaun tomak husi kabela eletronika konfidensial nian liu 250,000 ne’ebe sira hetan husi Departamentu Estadu (Ministeriu Negocios Estrangeiros) Estadus Unidus nian. Dokumentus sira ne’e nudar fontes ka janela ne’ebe molok ne’e nunka mais akontese kona-ba Governu Estadus Unidus nian, liu-liu nia embaixada sira, ba observa no influensia nasaun sira seluk.

Website Wikileaks nian susar atu asesu (no server balun blokeia website ne’e, inklui server sira iha Departamentu Estadu nian rasik), tamba ne’e La’o Hamutuk publika sai lista husi kabela eletronika 391 ne’ebe iha relasaun ba Timor-Leste. Ami liga ba tekstu kompletu nian no publika tiha balun ne’ebe interesante liu iha format PDF ne’ebe bele download.

Kabela eletronika sira ne’e husi inisiu 2006 to’o iha inisiu 2010, hatudu katak Estadus Unidus iha interaksaun ho Timor-Leste iha dalan balun ne’ebe interesante, inklui diskusaun barak ho partisipantes nivel altu iha krize 2006. Ida be’e foun liu mak, Embaixada Estadus Unidus nian fo korajem ba boa-governasaun, sustentabilidade no justisa. Maibe iha tempu ne’ebe hanesan, Estadus Unidus husu ba Timor-Leste atu suporta pozisaun Estadus Unidus nian ba asuntu sira hanesan Kuba no Mudansa Klimatika ne’ebe dalaruma kontrariu ho povo Timor nia hakarak.

Embaixador Hans Klemm hatudu hodi halo advokasia ida ba rai ida ne’e, hodi husu ba Washington atu kansela Alerta de Viagem iha Setembru 2008, no halo advokasia atu kontinua fundu MCC nian ba Timor-Leste. Nia no Embaixada iha Jakarta husu ba ofisiais Indonezia no Timor-Leste atu fo dalan ba prosesu julgamentu tribunal nian ba lider milisia Maternus Bere ne’ebe hetan tiha ona akuzasaun, no konsistente ho Konstituisaun no lei. Estadus Unidus mos diskoraje ho kriminalizasaun ba defamasaun no uza perdaun ba ema barak, no lei amnestia nian ne’ebe hanesan atu kua tiha direitus umanus no estadu de direitu demokratiku.

Maske iha balun mak preokupa liu atu uza rumores no gosip iha kabela eletronika ida ne’e ba sira nia vantajem politiku, ka atu defende sira nia an hodi kontra observasaun honestu nian, La’o Hamutuk espera katak kabela eletronika sira ne’e sei uza ho konstrutivu liu, iha dalan ne’ebe obyektivu. Por ezemplu, ami kontente atu hare kabela ida husi fin de tinan 2008, Projeitu boot no aprovisionamentu governu iha Timor-Leste, ekspresa preokupasaun barak ne’ebe hanesan ho sira ne’ebe La’o Hamutuk preokupa kona-ba projeitu eletrisidade nasional:

Iha Julho 2008, iha notisia katak Governu sei hari sentral eletrisidade boot rua husi kompania Xineza ne’ebe mos sei kontrata atu hari rede transmisaun ba teritoriu tomak. Iha okaziaun ida ne’e, governu fo sai tenderizasaun internasional ida, maske iha ema barak iha Dili komprende ona katak kontratu ne’e hetan tiha ona konkordansia molok governu anunsia tenderizasaun. Maske observador sira hateten katak anunsiamentu ba tender nian ne’e laiha substansia no teknikamente la adekuadu, iha kompania internasional 14 mak hatama sira nia aplikasaun ba tenderizasaun. Desizaun atu fo kontratu ba kompania Xineza ne’e dala ida tan halo husi Primeiru Ministru ho ladun iha konsultasaun diak ho linha ministerial. Ekipamentu ba sentral eletrika ne’e tuan tiha ona (uza tiha ona durante tinan 40 iha Xina molok ne’e)ne’ebe sei taka, eksporta no atu hari fali iha Timor-Leste. Peritus sira hateten kontratu ba instalasaun linha transmisaun nian durante tinan rua nia laran nudar fantasia ida. Banku Mundial nia relatoriu husu ba governu atu kansela tiha kontratu, simu penalti, no halo tenderizasaun foun ba projeitu. Maibe laiha indikasaun katak governu hakarak atu tuir konselu ida ne’e.

Wikileaks: U.S. Govt and Timor-Leste

2011-09-06T16:40:00.002+09:00

A few weeks ago, Wikileaks published their entire collection of more than 250,000 leaked U.S. State Department cables on the internet. They are an unprecedented window into how the U.S. Government, especially its embassies, observes and influences other countries.

The Wikileaks website can be difficult to access (and is blocked by some servers, including those of the State Department itself), so La'o Hamutuk has posted the list of 391 cables related to Timor-Leste. We link to all the full texts and have posted some of the most interesting ones as downloadable PDFs.

The cables, from early 2006 through early 2010, show that the U.S. has interacted with Timor-Leste in some interesting ways, including many discussions with high-level participants in the 2006 crisis. More recently, the U.S. embassy has encouraged good governance, sustainability, and justice. At the same time, it urged Timor-Leste to support U.S. positions on issues such as Cuba and Climate Change which may be contradictory to the Timorese people's wishes.

Ambassador Hans Klemm appears to have been an advocate for this country, urging Washington to cancel its travel warning in September 2008, and encouraging the continuation of MCC funding for Timor-Leste. He and the U.S. embassy in Jakarta urged Indonesia and Timor-Leste officials to allow the prosecution of indicted militia leader Maternus Bere to proceed, consistent with the Constitution and the law. The U.S. also discouraged criminalizing defamation and the widespread use of pardons and the amnesty law as undercutting human rights and the rule of law.

Although some are rushing to use the occasional rumors and gossip in the cables to their political advantage, or to defend themselves against honest observations, La'o Hamutuk hopes that they will be used in more constructive, objective ways. For example, we're glad to see that a cable from the end of 2008, Major Projects and Government Procurement in Timor-Leste, expressed many of the same concerns that La'o Hamutuk has been raising about the national electricity project:

In July 2008, news surfaced that the government would purchase two large electricity generating plants from a Chinese firm that would also be contracted to put into place a nationwide transmission grid. On this occasion, the government issued an international tender, although the widespread understanding in Dili was that the purchase had been agreed before the government announced the tender. Although observers described the tender announcement as insubstantial and technically inadequate, fourteen international firms submitted bids. The decision to award the contract to the Chinese firm again was made by the prime minister with very little consultation with line ministers. The power plants are old equipment (with some 40 years of service in China already behind them) that will be dissembled, exported and refitted in Timor-Leste. They will burn heavy oil that Timor will have to import. Experts describe the contracted installation of a national transmission grid within two years as a fantasy. The World Bank reportedly has urged the government to cancel the contract, absorb the penalty, and re-tender the project. There is no indication that the government intends to follow this advice.

Thoughts for the regional EITI Conference in Dili

2011-08-31T23:57:00.004+09:00

On 25-26 August, the Government of Timor-Leste hosted a regional conference of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), attended by civil society, government representatives, oil companies and development partners from Asia, the Fragile States, and elsewhere. For more information on EITI and the conference, click here.

La'o Hamutuk observed that much time was given to appreciation and congratulations, with little discussion of the hard work needed to avoid the "resource curse," or of recent developments in Timor-Leste which make it more likely that our finite, non-renewable petroleum wealth may be misused. We distributed some thoughts to participants near the end of the conference -- click here for our 5-page statement in Tetum or English or continue for an edited version, with links and graphics.

Thoughts from La'o Hamutuk for the EITI Conference

26 August 2011

Firstly, we would like to congratulate the state of Timor-Leste, as a nation which became EITI-compliant last year, fororganizing this regional EITI conference. This conferencedemonstrates Timor-Leste's momentum to show itself as a success story inmanaging and using natural resources transparently.

The coalition of Government, civil society and oil companies is proud of whatTimor-Leste has achieved. La'o Hamutuk would like to strongly appreciate the work of the State of Timor-Leste to comply and promote transparencyin petroleum management in Timor-Leste.

However, we feel that this is not yet enough to ensure that petroleum revenueswill benefit all our citizens today and in the future. Therefore, we hope thatthis EITI conference can develop good ideas to help our Government andpeople make wise decisions about revenue management.

This document offers our perspectives on some key issues.

Timor-Leste is enchanted with the sweet song of our new momentum.

When the EITI international secretariat declared Timor-LesteEITI-compliant on 1 July 2010, the Government proudly declared that this is an "importantsignal for Government, Civil Society and Extractive Industries, had come fromlong, hard work in collaboration with the Government led by PrimeMinister Xanana Gusmao."

We think this is an important step, but its benefits will be limited if thesuccess doesn't continue with good governance andtransparency in all state programs. Transparency should not be justa slogan, but must be implemented to hold all public institutionsaccountable and earn maximum confidence from the people. Because iftransparency is only a slogan, corruption will grow, devaluing our democracyand reducing the legitimacy of the state.

Timor-Leste's Government has launched the Transparency Portal, which isa good step, but it needs to be more accessible and incorporate public education to be effective.

In addition, many agencies hide information from the public, with little access to national and district procurement processes, such as changes in contracts and public works tenders which don'tfollow proper procedures -- including Pakote Referendum implementation,the heavy oil power stations, the Hera port, the Behau port, and otherprojects.

Unfortunately, newspapers, radio and television, pamphlets and bannerswhich boast that Timor-Leste is a leader in EITIignore policies which support secrecy in Timor-Leste. We observe Compliant Countries focused on thetransparency targets they have achieved. Too much attention is given to the EITI process itself, and not enough to risksfrom current policies which threaten transparency.

In addition, petroleum companies everywhere, including here, often don't take transparency seriously, but keep exploiting legal and humanweaknesses to maximize their profits, even as they say theyfollow EITI principles to pay and publish their obligations. A few years ago, ConocoPhillips tried to illegally recover costs from the Firebird test well in the Timor-Sea, although we are lucky that ourstate was able to finally collect this money last year. Until today, Woodsideand ConocoPhillips refuse to publish the contracts for Greater Sunrise andBayu-Undan.

Click for notes on this graphic.

Revising the Petroleum Fund Law is an obstacle to good governance ofpetroleum revenues.

Timor-Leste is extremely dependent on petroleum. This year alone, $1.19billion of the $1.31 billion state budget comes from the Petroleum Fund.

Today, many nations who depend on petroleum fallinto civil war, corruption and escalating poverty. These states fail when there is no good system for managing petroleum receipts. Many countriesrich in oil end up poorer, because their state only thinks about spending theoil money as it comes in, and eventually nonrenewable resources become only astory from past generations. Leaders tend to see money as the solution to allchallenges, spending more on short-term activities instead of investing forthe long term. For example, Timor-Leste's 2011 State Budget allocates twice asmuch money for overseas scholarships as for the national university, whichwould develop our own education system to reach many more students.

Fortunately, Timor-Leste established its Petroleum Fund in 2005 to "contributeto prudent management of the Petroleum Fund for the benefit of current andfuture generations." Therefore, we should reinforce the provisionsof this law about good governance, transparency, accountability and Governmentsresponsibility for annual spending.

Unfortunately, the Government recently revised the Petroleum Fund Law, andParliament approved these amendments last Tuesday. We are distressed that therevision weakens essential articles which safeguard our petroleum resources,allowing half the fund to be invested in financial markets (increasing the riskof losing money), using the Fund as collateral for borrowing, and weakening thesustainable spending rule. It undercuts the roles of the Investment AdvisoryBoard and the Banking and Payments Authority, concentrating power in theMinister of Finance.

The revision allows thestate to endanger future generations' rights for short-term opportunism. Thisdecision reduces transparency, and holding this EITI conference is a diversionto distract people from this reality.

In the last few weeks, the global economy has been in turmoil: oil prices have plunged, the U.S. economy is fragile, S&P downgraded U.S. treasury bonds, and the stock market fluctuates wildly.Investors all over the world are worried and uncertain. Therefore, we suggestthat the Government act slowly and carefully before implementing thechanges from the revised Petroleum Fund Law. If we guess wrong, we willno longer be proud of our system for managing petroleum revenues.

The ANP, TimorGAP,E.P. and BPA have non-transparent budgets.

Today, everybody considers Timor-Leste's extractive industry revenuemanagement as excellent. The World Bank, EITI Secretariat and our Governmenthold up Timor-Leste as an example for other countries. But when we look at what reallyhappens here, we don't yet have strong enough processes to guarantee transparency in thepetroleum sector for our people's benefit. Our state and other institutionsshould be courageous enough to recognize this situation, and not conceal realitybehind sweet words.

Article 6 of the 2005 Petroleum Fund Law states that all petroleum revenuesmust be deposited in the Petroleum Fund. But unfortunately, not all this moneygoes into the fund. The budgets of the National Petroleum Authority (ANP), theBanking and Payment Authority (BPA), and the imminent TimorGAP national oil company are not included in the State Budget. They are partly financed bydirect payment from oil companies for activities in the JPDA or money formanaging the fund, undercutting transparency in the petroleum sector and theconstitutional power of Parliament to approve and audit the peoples' money.

The ANP is a Timor-Leste Instituto Publico, and should be financed throughnormal state processes, not as a separate state within the state. We believethat the state is obligated to create legal accountability for ANP -- otherwise weonly talk transparency, but don't practice it. However, we appreciate thevoluntary transparency in the publish-what-you-pay pages on the ANP website,which is better (more disaggregated) than the Government's reports.

We are not raising this issue to discreditTimor-Leste's National Petroleum Authority. We do not doubt the ANP'sintegrity, capacity, independence and professionalism to manage and regulateoil industry activities in Timor-Leste. But when we establish a better and moreeffective model of transparency, resolving this should be a priority.

The Heavy Oil Project is being carried out without transparency.

In addition to the problems discussed above, today's policy of usingpetroleum revenues in the state budget endangers Timor-Leste's transparencymodel. The huge national heavy oil electricity project begun three years agowill cost nearly a billion dollars, and is done with no transparency. Accordingto the Transparency Portal, more than half of all state expenditures during thefirst half of 2011 went for this project.

There was no public consultation, cost/benefit analysis, orlegally-required environmental impact analysis. The tendering process, contract changes,design changes, budget opacity and mammoth cost overruns belie transparency. The public doesn't know how this project will impact theirlives -- there is no explanation of risks of acid rain and to the ground water, and nopublic plan to mitigate or avoid these impacts. The Betano-Same community hasprotested the generating station in their area; the Behau port was built in aprotected area -- more examples of the lack of transparency around this project.

The Resource Curse is happening here.

In many countries with oil and gas, including Timor-Leste, most benefits go to a few individuals and companies. Petroleumearnings often don't support the citizens, but become a devil which brings poverty tothe true owners of the resources.

In many countries in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America,development of nonrenewable resources often brings a curse: war, fragility,dictatorship, repression, militarization, corruption, environmentaldestruction, inflation and poverty. This situation happens faster in countries with weak democracy which depend on exporting oil and gas -- they don't diversify their domestic economy while oil revenues are high, and have leaders who would find it easier to spend than to increase productivity.

Timor-Leste has already caught this curse. Petroleum income dominates state activities, and state activitiesdominate our entire economy. If policies don't change this situation, ourpeople -- especially those in poverty -- will not get the quality of life theydeserve. Socio-economic injustice and conflict are likely to increase.

The flood of petroleum revenues causes the state to ignore other sources ofmoney. The Strategic Development Plan (PEDN) the Government launched lastmonth envisions Timor-Leste depending on oil revenues for decades. It prioritizes the Tasi Mane oil and gas processing project, allocating twice as much money this year for its feasibility studies as for the entire Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

This year's budget doesn't allocate enough to sectors likeagriculture, health, education, tourism and fisheries -- but spends the lion's share on the problematic electricity project.

In addition, Timor-Leste's balance of trade shows that we depend on imports for almost everything. The National Statistics Departmentreports that in 2010, we spent $289 million on goods imports andexported only $17 million, 96% of which was coffee.

This is not good for our future, because we have much less oil and gas wealth than other countries. Bayu-Undan will provide income only until 2023-- one more decade. Although we optimistically hope that the Greater Sunrise oil and gas field will be developed, that reserve will provide revenues for only 30 years more, and not enough to provide a good life for all our people.

If we haven't developed our non-oil economy before our petroleum is used up, Timor-Leste's people will not enjoy our rights tohealth, education, and other development. Our people will go hungry when we have no petroleum money to importrice. We will no longer be able to buy university education from overseas, or to payforeign experts, or teachers or doctors.

In summary, we think that this EITI conference should focus more onways to prevent or rescue oil-export-dependent countries from the resource curse, to reduce dependencyon oil, not only on the EITI process.

Borrowing increases risk for the future.

So far, Timor-Leste has no external debt. Although we began nationhood in 2002 withan uncertain economy, Timor-Leste resisted pressure from the ADB and World Bank --the same institutions which support EITI -- to take out loans to finance statespending.

In 2006, Timor-Leste began receiving large petroleum revenues. Since2007, oil revenues dominate the state budget. Unfortunately, this condition hasnot reduced the temptation to borrow.

In 2009, the Government began looking for loans to finance infrastructureprojects, and has enacted several laws to enable borrowing, including the 2009 Budget and Financial Management Law. Just this week, Parliament approvedrevisions to the Petroleum Fund Law and enacted a new Public Debt Law.

Borrowing is unwise. Experienceshows that many nations who borrow end up failing. Petroleum-export-dependent countries are often tempted to use their oil as collateral for borrowing. Many countries borrowed against their oil wealth in the 1970s and 1980s, when IFIs and rich countries gave big loans to oil producers. Indonesia, Congo, Ecuador, Nicaragua, thePhilippines, Argentina and others collapsed when debt becameunsustainable -- the loans had provided benefits for a few dictators andcronies, but most people were still poor.

Timor-Leste enters risky territory by weakening Article 20 of thePetroleum Fund Law to allow use of part of the Fund as collateral. We all agree that investing money to develop human resources, education, healthand agriculture can help bring Timor-Leste out of poverty, but we are unhappythat the Government wants to borrow billions of dollars only for physicalinfrastructure.

Therefore, we urge Timor-Leste to think carefully before borrowing. Even ifinterest rates are low, we will have to repay the principal after our oilwealth is spent. Repayments may obligate the state to reduce expenditures forpublic assistance, health, education and other essential services.

Finally, we conclude that EITI is a good first step, but there are problemsrelating to skills, dissemination and human resources which need serious attention from all of us. La'o Hamutuk remains ready to work with Government, civil society,oil companies, international financial institutions, Parliament, politicalparties and especially Timor-Leste's people to help this nation improve andpromote transparency, to benefit all our people.

Hanoin balu ba konferensia rejional EITI iha Dili

2011-08-31T13:19:00.117+09:00

Iha loron 25-26 Agustu, Governu Timor-Leste sai uma nain ba konferensia rejional Inisiativa Transparensia iha Industria Ekstrativa (EITI), partisipa husi sosiedade sivil, reprezentante Governu, kompania petroleu no parseiru dezenvolvimentu husi Azia, Estadu Frajil, no sira seluk tan. Atu hetan informasaun tan kona-ba EITI no konferensia ne’e, klik iha ne’e.

La’o Hamutuk observa katak tempu barak uza atu ba halo apresiasaun no kongratulasaun, ho diskusaun oituan ba servisu boot ne’ebe presiza atu evita “Malisan Rekursu,” ka dezenvolvimentu atual iha Timor-Leste ne’ebe bele halo ita nia rekursu nau-petroleu ne’ebe limitadu ne’e uza lalos. Ami fahe hanoin balu ba partisipantes sira bainhira konferensia ne’e besik atu remata. Klik iha ne’e atu hetan ami nia statementu ho pajina 5 iha Tetum ka Ingles ka kontinua atu hetan versaun hadika nian, ho ligasaun no grafiku balun.

Hanoin balu husi La’o Hamutuk ba konferensia EITI
26 Agustu 2011

Ba dahuluk ami hakarak kongratula Estadu Timor-Leste ne’ebe organiza konferensia EITI regional, “Beyond EITI: Timor-Leste Transparency Model” ne’e. Konferensia ne’e nudar momentum ba Timor-Leste atu hatudu nia an nudar nasaun ne’ebe susesu hodi jere no uza nia rekursu naturais ho transparante.

Koalisaun entre Governu, Sosiedade Sivil no kompania petroleu sente orgulhu ho rezultadu ne’ebe Timor-Leste atinzi ba. La’o Hamutuk rasik apresia tebes ba esforsu estadu Timor-Leste nian, hodi kumpri no garantia transparansia iha jestaun petroleu iha Timor-Leste.

Maske nune’e, ami sente katak ida ne’e seidauk naton atu garantia katak reseitas petroleu sei benefisia sidadaun tomak agora no aban-bainrua. Tamba ne’e, ami espera katak konferensia EITI ida ne’e bele dezenvolve idea diak sira hodi ajuda Governu no povo atu foti desizaun ba jestaun reseitas petroleum ne’ebe matenek no diak.

Dokumentu ida ne’e oferese ami nia perspetiva kona-ba asuntu xave balun.

Timor-Leste Romantiku ho “Kantigu atrazadu” iha momentum foun nia laran.

Hafoin Sekretariadu internasional EITI nian iha Oslo-Noruega deklara Timor-Leste hodi sai ona nasaun kumpridor ba EITI iha 1 Julho 2010, Governu ho orgulhu deklara katak “pasu ida ne’e nudar sinal importante ba Governu, sosiedade sivil no industra ekstrativa, rezultadu husi esforsu maka’as ba tempu naruk no kolaborasaun husi Governu ne’ebe lidera husi Primeiru Ministru Xanana Gusmao”.

Ami hanoin ne’e pasu importante teb-tebes, maibe sei hamenus benefisiu bainhira susesu la kontinua ho planu no sistema boa-governasaun, transparansia iha implementasaun programa estadu nian tomak. Transparansia labele sai deit slogan maibe tenke implementa hodi nune’e bele halo instituisaun publiku sira iha estadu nia laran sai akuntavel no hetan konfiansa maximu husi povo. Tamba karik transparansia hanesan slogan deit, korupsaun sei buras, hodi halakon valor demokrasia no mos ilejitima estadu ne’e rasik.

Timor-Leste, lansa ona Portal Transparansia Governu nian, nudar pasu diak, maibe presiza halo portal ne’e sai asesibilidade no inkorporadu edukasaun publiku atu sai efikas liu.

Aleinde ne’e, sistema birokrasia barak mak sei impede ba publiku atu hatene informasaun, ho laiha asesu publiku ba prosesu aprovisonamentu nian iha nivel nasional no distrital, hanesan kontratu no tenderizasaun ba obra publiku la tuir prosesu lolos nian. Ezemplu, implementasaun projeitu Pakote Referendum, Projeitu eletrisidade oleu pezadu, portu Hera, Portu Behau no projeitu sira seluk tan.

Infelizmente iha jornal, radio-televizaun to’o iha pamfleitu no spanduk boot halo kampanha no promove katak Timor-Leste mak sei lidera prosesu EITI nian iha rejiaun Azia-Pasifiku hodi ignora tiha realidade husi politika ne’ebe promove konfidensial no segredu iha Timor-Leste. Ami hare “Compliant Country” ne’e domina tiha tarjeitu transparansia ne’ebe atu atinzi ba. Foka demais liu ba “prosesu” EITI nian deit, maibe ladun preokupa ba risku husi politika atual balun ne’ebe ameasa hela transparansia.

Aleinde ne’e, industria petroleu iha mundu tomak, inklui Timor-Leste mos, dala-barak lakohi promove transparansia ho seriu, maibe koko nafatin atu uza frakeza legal no humanu nian hodi hakarak atu atu maksimiza lukru ba sira nia an, maske sira hateten pronto atu tuir prinsipiu EITI nian atu selu no publika saida mak sira nia obrigasaun. Hanesan iha tinan balu liu ba ConocoPhilips hakarak atu nauk kustu rekoperasaun ho ilegal husi posu teste Firebird nian iha Tasi Timor. Ita iha sorte boot, tamba estadu konsege rekolha fila fali osan ne’ebe kompania ida ne’e nauk. To ohin loron Kompania Woodside no ConocoPhilips rasik lakohi publika kontratu ba kampu gas Greater Sunrise no kampu Bayu Undan nian ba publiku.

Revizaun Lei Fundu Petroleu, obstaklu ba boa-jestaun reseitas petrolifera

Timor-Leste nudar nasaun ida ne’ebe nia dependensia ba petroleum maka’as teb-tebes. Tinan ida ne’e deit biliaun $1.19 mai husi Fundu Petroleu ba Orsamentu estadu tomak biliaun $1.3.

Durante ne’e nasaun sira ne’ebe nia ekonomia depende liu ba reseitas petroleu sai failha, monu ba funu sivil ne’ebe naruk, korupsaun no pobreza ne’ebe sae maka’as. Situsaun sira ne’e akontese tamba sistema jestaun rendimentu petroleu nian ne’ebe ladiak. Nasaun barak ne’ebe riku ho minarai, ikus mai sai kiak liu, tamba sira nia estadu hanoin atu gasta deit sira nia osan husi rendimentu mina-rai nian bainhira tama ba estadu, no ikus mai rekursu naturais naun-renovavel ne’e sai deit istoria ba nia jerasaun sira. Lideres sira hare osan hanesan solusaun ba obstaklu, no gasta osan barak liu ba buat ne’ebe temporariu duke investe ba interese tempu naruk. Ezemplu mak dadauk ne’e Governu aloka osan barak liu ba bolsu estudu iha rai-liur barak liu ba orsamentu ba Universidade Nasional, atu dezenvolve sistema edukasaun iha rai-laran ne’ebe bele fo asistensia ba estudante barak liu tan.

Timor-Leste sei iha sorte ho estabelesimentu Fundu Petroleu iha tinan 2005 liu ba, hodi “kontribui jestaun ida be prudente ba Fundu Petroleu hodi benefisia jerasaun agora no futuru”. Tamba ne’e,
ita tenke haforsa tan provizaun sira iha lei ne’e kona-ba boa-governasaun, transparansia, akuntabilidade no responsabilidade Governu ba gastu tinan-tinan nian.

Infelizmente, Governu halo ona revizaun ba Lei Fundu Petroleu ne’e rasik, no Parlamentu Nasional halo ona aprovasaun atu altera lei Fundu Petroleu ne’e iha Tersa Feira semana ne’e. Ami triste teb-tebes tamba revizaun ne’e hafraku ba artigu esensial sira ne’ebe durante ne’e proteze riku-soin petroleu, hodi fo dalan atu investe metade husi Fundu Petroleu ba iha merkadu finanseiru ne’ebe sei hadalan risku boot hodi lakon osan, uza Fundu Petroleu hanesan garantia ba imprestimu, hafraku provizaun ba nivel sustentavel nian, no mos hafraku knar Konseilu Investimentu no BPA nian hodi fo poder boot liu ba Ministru/a Finansa.

Revizaun ba lei ida ne’e nudar pasu perigozu ida hodi fo liberdade no oportunidade temporariu ba estadu.Planu no desizaun ne’e hafraku ona transparansia, no halo konferensia EITI nian ida ne’e hanesan distrasaun boot atu lohi publiku husi realidade ne’ebe lolos.

Iha semana balun liu ba, iha situasaun relasiona ho ekonomia mundial mak akontese, hanesan presu mina-rai tun maka’as, ekonomia Estadu Unidus nian iha risku nia laran ho sira nia titulus obrigasaun nia nivel (rate) monu tun, no merkadu asoens nia valor iha fluktuasaun maka’as no la serteza. Tamba ne’e ami suzere ba Governu atu hanoin didiak ho kuidadu atu implementa Lei Fundu Petroleu foun ida ne’e, se lae ne’e bele hadalan risku ba eksistensia Fundu Petroleu, karik ita failha, ita sei la bele tan atu sente orgulhu ba ita nia jestaun Fundu Petroleu iha mundu ne’e.

ANP, TimorGAP no ABP nia orsamentu balun, seidauk pratika transparansia.

Durante ne’e ema hotu konsidera modelu transparansia iha industria ekstrativu ne’ebe Timor-Leste implementa ne’e diak teb-tebes. Banku Mundial, Sekretariadu EITI Internasional, Governu rasik sente katak Timor-Leste sei sai ezemplu ba modelu transparansia ba nasaun sira seluk. Maibe bainhira ita hare ba realidade ne’ebe akontese iha Timor-Leste, kondisaun ne’e seidauk sufisiente atu garantia transparansia iha seitor petroleu atu benefisia povo. Estadu no entidade tomak iha ne’e tenke brani atu rekonhese situasaun ida ne’e, laos subar realidade ho palestra midar deit.

Lei Fundu Petroleu 2005, Artigu 6 hateten katak montante tomak husi rendimentu no atividade petroleu nian tenke ba iha Fundu Petroleu. Maibe infelizmente laos osan hotu-hotu husi atividade petroleu nian tomak ba Fundu Petroleu. Orsamentu Autoridade Nasional Petroleu (ANP) Timor-Leste, BPA no futuru kompania nasional mina-rai TimorGAP nian balun la mai husi aprovasaun Parlamentu Nasional. Maibe direitamente mai husi pagamentu balun ne’ebe kompania sira halo husi atividade petroleum nian iha Area Dezenvolvimentu Petroleu Konjunta (JPDA) no osan husi jestaun Fundu nian, ne’ebe la reflete no la ajuda atu garantia transparansia iha seitor petroleu iha futuru, kua tiha poder konstitusional Parlamentu nian atu fiskaliza osan povo nian ida ne’e.

ANP nudar Institutu Publico Timor-Leste nian ne’ebe nia finansiamentu tenke tuir prosesu normal estadu nain, laos sai fali estadu foun iha estadu nia laran. Ami hanoin katak estadu iha obrigasaun atu halo kondisaun atu ajuda akuntabilidade ANP nian tuir lei ne’ebe iha, se lae, promove transparansia iha ibun deit, laos pratika real. Nune'e ami apresia ba ANP ne’ebe ho voluntariamente hatudu nia transparansia iha sira nia pajina web Publika Saida mak Ita-boot Selu, ne’ebe nia transparansia diak liu tan relatoriu Governu nian.

Ami foti asuntu orsamentu ANP nian ne’e laos atu diskredita ANP. Ami la duvida ho Autoridade Nasional Petroleu nia integridade no kapasidade, independensia no profesionalismu atu jere no regula atividade industria petroleu iha Timor-Leste. Maibe bainhira atu estabelese modelu transparansia ida ne’ebe kapa’as no efektivu liu tan, asuntu ne’e tenke sai prioridade atu rezolve.

Projeitu Oleu Pezadu ezekuta laiha transparansia.

Aleinde problema sira ne’ebe ami diskute ona iha leten, politika atu utiliza rendimentu petroleu nian ba orsamentu estadu nian ohin loron sei fo risku boot liu ba modelo transparansia Timor-Leste nian. Projeitu eletrifikasaun nasional jigante “oleo pezadu” ne’ebe hahu desde tinan tolu liu ba, ho kustu besik biliaun $1 la refleta transparansia ne’e rasik. Tuir Portal Transparansia, liu 50% husi Governu nia gastus ba liu projeitu ida ne’e durante fulan ne’en primeiru iha 2011.

Laiha prosesu konsultasaun publiku, estudu no analiza ba kustu no benefisiu inklui avaliasaun impaktu ambiental ne’ebe adekuadu tuir lei. Prosesu tenderizasan, mudansa kontratu, mudansa dezeinhu inklui mudansa orsamentu nakonu ho duvida ba transparansia. Publiku lahatene saida mak impaktu husi projeitu ne’e ba sira nia moris, laiha esplikasaun husi risku udan asidu ba sira nia moris, sira nia tas-be no laiha planu mitigasaun atu prevene ka hamenus impaktu ne’e. Kazu protesta komunidade nian iha Betano-Same ba sentral eletrika nian no hari portu iha area protezidu Behau, nudar ezemplu husi prosesu projeitu ne’ebe la transparante.

Malisan Rekursu daet ona mai iha ne’e.

Iha nasaun barak mak iha mina-rai no gas, inklui Timor-Leste ne’ebe, benefisiu boot ba husi mina-rai no gas ba ema no kompania mina-rai balun deit. Osan husi rendimentu petroleu nian la fo benefisiu ba nia povo sira, maibe sai fali diabu ne’ebe lori pobreza ba povo sira ne’ebe lolos sai nain ba riku-soin sira ne’e.

Iha nasaun barak iha Afrika, Mediu-oriente, Azia no Amerika Latina, dezenvolvimentu rekursu naturais naun renovavel ne’e dala barak hadalan malisan: iha funu, estadu ne’ebe frazil, ditadura, represaun, militarizasaun, korupsaun, estragus ambiental, inflasaun no pobreza ne’ebe maka’as. Situasaun ne’e akontese lalais liu bainhira nasaun produtor mina-rai sira ne’e moris iha ambiente demokrasia ne’ebe fraku, dependensia maka’as ba petroleu, tamba la halo diversifikasaun ba nia ekonomia railaran nian bainhira rendimentu petroleu nian tama maka’as mai, no domina husi mentalidade lideransa ne’ebe iha gostu atu gasta deit duke produs.

Timor-Leste rasik dadauk ne’e daet ona husi malisan ne’e. Reseitas mina-rai domina tiha atividade estadu nian, no atividade estadu nian domina tomak ekonomia. Karik situasaun ne’e la muda husi politika estadu nian, povo liu-liu sira ne’ebe kiak sei labele hetan kondisaun moris ne’ebe sira merese atu hetan iha sira nia moris tomak. Injustisa sosial-ekonomia no posibilidade ba konflitu sosial bele akontese maka’as.

Osan barak husi reseitas petroleu halo ita nia estadu hodi haluha no la fo atensaun ba fontes ekonomia seluk nian. Planu Estratejiku Dezenvolvimentu Nasional (PEDN) ne’ebe iha fulan kotuk liu ba lansa husi Governu indika tan katak Timor-Leste sei depende liu tan ba seitor petroleu ba iha dekade balun oin mai, liu-liu projeitu Tasi Mane atu prosesa mina-rai no gas iha kosta sul Timor-Leste nian. Alokasaun orsamentu ba estudu viabilidade projeitu ne’e barak liu dala rua kompara ho alokasaun orsamentu ba Ministeriu Agrikultura.

Tinan ida ne’e deit alokasaun orsamentu la fo atensaun maka’as ba seitor sira hanesan agrikultura, saude, edukasaun, turismu, peska no seluk tan, maibe fo atensaun liu ba seitor eletrisidade oleo pezadu ne’ebe to ohin loron nafatin husik problematiku ba Timor-Leste.

Aleinde ne’e, balansiu komersiu Timor-Leste nian iha tinan kotuk hatudu katak Timor-Leste depende maka’as liu ba importasaun ba sasan nesesidade baziku no sira seluk. Diresaun Nasional Estatistika (DNE) fo relatoriu katak durante 2010, Timor-Leste gasta tokon $289 ba importasaun no hetan deit tokon $17 husi eksportasaun, 96% mai husi fan kafe.

Fenomena ida ne’e laos buat diak ba Timor-Leste nia futuru, basa rekursu mina-rai no gas ne’ebe Timor-Leste iha ne’e limitadu kompara ho nasaun sira seluk. Bayu Undan ne’ebe durante ne’e fo rendimentu ba estadu nian sei remata iha tinan 2023, dekade ida tan. Maske, iha ekspetasaun optimistiku balun ba dezenvolvimentu kampu gas Greater Sunrise nian, maibe ida ne’e la dura liu ba tinan 30 no osan ne’ebe ita sei hetan labele fo moris diak ba povo Timor-Leste tomak.

Bainhira petroleu esploita hotu ona, ita nia povo sei labele hetan direitu saude, edukasaun no dezenvolvimentu seluk tan ho diak no adekuadu bainhira ohin loron ita la hahu atu dezenvolve ekonomia seluk. Ita nia povo sei hamlaha bainhira ita nia osan husi petroleu laiha ona atu importa fos husi rai-liur, ita-labele sosa universidade sira iha rai-liur no mos ita labele sosa peritus sira husi rai liur inklui profesores no doutor sira.

Tamba ne’e, ami hanoin katak konferensia EITI ida ne’e tenke foka liu ba atu diskute mekanismu hodi evita no salva nasaun produtor ba mina-rai nain atu hases an husi dependensia ba ekonomia petroleu, laos diskute no debate deit “prosesu” EITI nian.

Deve aumenta risku ba futuru.

To'o ohin loron, Timor-Leste nudar nasaun ida ne’ebe laiha divida eksternal ruma. Maske iha 2002 hahu hari nasaun soberano ne’e ho kondisaun ekonomia ne’ebe la serteza, Timor-Leste insiste atu kontra presaun sira husi instituisaun sira hanesan Banku Mundial no Banku Dezenvolvimentu Azia (ADB), instituisaun sira ne’ebe durante ne’e suporta hela EITI hodi fo imprestimu atu finansia gastus estadu.

Hafoin 2006, Timor-Leste hetan osan barak husi reseitas petroleu nian tinan-tinan. Hahu kedas 2007 to ohin loron, gastu estadu nian domina ona husi reseitas petroleu. Maibe infelizmente, kondisaun ida ne’e seidauk bele ajuda Timor-Leste atu hases an husi tentasaun hodi halo imprestimu.

Iha 2009, Governu hahu halo aprosimasaun atu hetan deve atu halo finansia projeitu, no halo legislasaun balun hodi bele hadalan imprestimu, inklui Lei Orsamentu Jestaun Finanseiru iha 2009. Iha semana ne’e deit Parlamentu aprova Revizaun ba Lei Fundu Petroleu no Lei ba Divida Publiku.

Imprestu laos desizaun matenek. Esperiensia hatudu mai ita katak, nasaun barak ne’ebe halo imprestimus ikus liu failha. Ba nasaun sira ne’ebe depende ba eksportasaun petroleu, deve hanesan tentasaun ida atu uza osan husi rendimentu petroleu nian nudar garansia ba imprestimu. Situasaun ne’e hahu husi tinan 1970s no 1980s nia laran, bainhira instituisaun finanseiru internasional fo imprestimus ne’ebe boot ba nasaun produtor mina-rai sira. Indonezia, Kongo, Ekuador, Nikaragua, Filipina, Argentina no nasaun sira seluk ikus liu monu ba iha deve ne’ebe lakotu, tamba osan imprestimus ida ne’e benefisia deit elites, familia ditadura sira, maibe povo barak mak nafatin moris iha kiak nia laran.

Timor-Leste rasik iha hela risku ne’e nia laran ho hafraku ona Artigu 20 iha Lei Fundu Petroleu atu uza parte balun husi Fundu ne’e nudar garantia ba imprestimus. Ita hotu konkorda atu investe osan atu dezenvolve rekursu humanus, edukasaun, saude no agrikultura hodi nune’e bele ajuda atu lori Timor-Leste sai husi kiak, maibe ami triste teb-tebes tamba Governu hakarak atu halo imprestimus ba biliaun de dolar balun hodi uza deit ba infraestrutura fiziku nian deit.

Tamba ne’e ami bolu atensaun ba Estadu Timor-Leste atu hanoin didiak bainhira deside atu halo imprestimu. Maske nia funan ne’e kiik maibe ita tenke selu nia kapital hafoin ita nia rikusoin petroleu nian gasta hotu ona. Deve sei lori estadu atu hamenus alokasaun orsamentu ba asistensia publiku, saude, edukasaun no seluk tan.

Ikus liu, ami konklui katak EITI nudar pasu primeiru ne’ebe diak, maibe sei iha problema barak relasiona ho skill, diseminasaun no rekursu humanus ne’ebe presiza duni iha atensaun husi ita hotu. La’o Hamutuk pronto atu servisu hamutuk ho Governu, Sosiedade Sivil sira seluk, kompania petroleu, instituisaun finanseiru internasional, Parlamentu Nasional, partidu politiku sira spesialmente povo Timor-Leste hodi bele ajuda Timor-Leste hodi hadiak no promove transparansia atu benefisia povo tomak.

LH observations for Donors' Conference

2011-07-11T23:15:00.000+09:00

La'o Hamutuk distributed some ideas to the Development Partners meeting, along with our initial comments on the Strategic Development Plan. The following is the introduction and extracts from our statement; the full text is on our website.

For more than a decade, La’o Hamutuk, as a Timor-Leste civil society organization, has been observing and analyzing the activities of Timor-Leste’s development partners and decision-makers as this nation emerges from war and occupation into peace and democracy.

La’o Hamutuk appreciates your hard work to make international assistance to Timor-Leste more effective, and we have observed improvement since 2000. During that time, the global aid community has learned lessons.

We have written a separate paper with our preliminary observations on the Strategic Development Plan. This paper complements that one. Some of our comments refer to the “Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States and Situations,” but we are writing specifically about Timor-Leste.

Main points

Please understand Timor-Leste’s complete context.
Ongoing impunity makes this democratic state more fragile.
Timor-Leste is a petro-state without much petroleum.
External debt will make Timor-Leste more fragile.
The Resource Curse is a key element of Timor-Leste’s context and fragility.
Security is more than the “security sector.”
Statebuilding is not the only objective.
Prioritize prevention with long-term planning and earlier-warning analysis.

Please understand Timor-Leste’s complete context.

The first Fragile State Principle (FSP) is to take context as the starting point. We believe that international actors here often overlook important elements of Timor-Leste’s context, either because they are unaware or to serve political or institutional objectives. This does not serve our people well.

Timor-Leste’s history didn’t start in 1999 or 2006. The legacies of colonialism, war, occupation, trauma, religion, poverty and underdevelopment are the fundamental components of the country’s current fragility. Over the past decade, international experts have defined problems or prescribed solutions for Timor-Leste’s people without understanding why things here are the way they are. These are not “cultural” or uniquely Timorese, but are the consequences of what international actors have brought to Timor-Leste for 500 years.

Post-colonial

Language controversy
Land ownership in chaos
Illiteracy
Underdevelopment
People never lived under rule of law.
Powerful people & classes have special privileges
People never had power to make decisions for themselves.
“To Resist is to Win” – lobbying, coalition-building, compromise and persuasion never worked.
Internalized Portuguese and Indonesian mindsets
Bureaucracy, corruption, “entitlement,” dwi fungsi
Incorporating returned exiles, former collaborators
Public officials all just learning their jobs
Most experienced people left in 1999, especially in education, health and governance.
Hard to get neighboring countries to respect our sovereignty

Post-conflict

Pandemic Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Infrastructure and property destroyed
Most adults have lost all their possessions and had their lives totally disrupted 2-3 times
No experience of predictability or long-term planning
Poverty
High birth rate
Domestic violence
Respecting veterans; dealing with collaborators
Police and military came from different sides of the independence struggle.
Leading in peacetime requires a different skill set than leading during resistance.
Differences of opinion are personalized. Loyalty and betrayal paramount; long histories and memories.

Ongoing impunity makes this democratic state more fragile.

Timor-Leste has recently emerged from centuries of colonialism and a generation of occupation and war. Our people live with their past experiences of trauma, injustice, oppression and discrimination. The prevailing impunity for crimes against humanity committed during the 24-year Indonesian occupation undermines the rule of law. For example, two years ago Indonesia successfully pressured Timor-Leste leaders to release indicted criminal Maternus Bere. This action violated our Constitution and increased popular perceptions that anyone supported by powerful people is above the law, a perception which emerged by the failure to hold accountable the principal actors behind the 2006 crisis or the 2008 attempted assassinations of the President and Prime Minister.

Development Partners and the Government, perhaps because of the past roles of certain states and individuals, are increasingly reluctant to acknowledge international responsibility to end impunity for crimes against humanity committed by international actors in Timor-Leste between 1975 and 1999, increasing the fragility of rule of law and accountability. How can this reversed?

Timor-Leste is a petro-state without much petroleum.

Mineral-rich countries are retaining more of their resource wealth than in the past. This means that Timor-Leste has its own money, but only for the next decade or two. Unfortunately, our total petroleum reserves are not that large, and it is unlikely that additional significant fields will be found. Under optimistic assumptions, Timor-Leste’s total oil and gas wealth will bring in about $48 billion, during four decades. Together with Petroleum Fund investment returns, this could provide $1.72/Timorese person/day through 2051 if all the money is spent as it comes in. With a sustainably managed Petroleum Fund, this declines to $1.41/person/day but lasts longer. Both figures are far less than is being spent in 2011 -- $3.11/person/day.

If current spending plans continue, Sunrise isn’t developed and no new fields are found, the Petroleum Fund will be empty by 2035 under Government price forecasts, and 2030 with more prudent ones.

Unfortunately, revenue from exporting oil and gas is virtually the only money circulating in Timor-Leste, enabling state activities and driving existing economic growth. Our private sector consists of subsistence farming, government contractors and a few importers. This is unsustainable, and when the oil money stops in 2024, our economy will grind to a halt, with our people enduring the consequences.

Since last September, dozens of reports have repeated that 41% of Timor-Leste’s people live below the poverty line of 88c/person/day. This number, based on a World Bank “projection” for 2009 derived from other surveys, is dubious. It ignores inflation and correlates indicators unrelated to poverty. We do not know the correct number, but neither does anyone else. A more recent study showed that hardly any poor people live in Dili, where most economic gain has occurred. In the long term, the failure to build a sustainable, self-sufficient, non-oil economy here will impact disastrously on future generations, as highlighted in UNDP’s 2011 National Human Development Report.

We hope that Timor-Leste’s Government’s exaggerated claims and dreams of non-oil economic growth and poverty reduction don’t cause donors to prioritize more needy recipient countries.

External debt will make Timor-Leste more fragile.

So far, Timor-Leste has no debt to any country or international institution, but this could change soon. The Government wants to borrow to finance public investment (the SDP gives only a hint), and some development partners are encouraging this path. One law is pending before Parliament to create a debt management regime, and another to use part of the Petroleum Fund as collateral for borrowing. However, the public has received little information and no consultation about the level of debt, what borrowed money will be used for, who it will come from, the consequences of default, and where the repayments will come from when the oil has all been sold.

We believe that this violates Fragile State Principles 2 (Do no harm), 4 (Prevention), 9 (Sustainability), 6 (Non-discrimination) and 10 (Inclusiveness). Borrowing today will impose debt payments after Timor-Leste’s oil reserves are exhausted, increasing fragility and transferring wealth from future generations to the current one. Even with concessional interest rates, the principal must be repaid. Although potential lenders – including Japan, Portugal, the ADB, IMF and World Bank – encourage quality investments with long-term returns, the record of large projects here and in other fragile states raise doubts whether these recommendations will be followed.

The Resource Curse is a key element of Timor-Leste’s context and fragility.

The “Resource Curse” is almost universal in countries dependent on exporting nonrenewable resources. The “resource curse” is not inflicted by the devil, but by context. Large, temporary, petroleum revenues have enabled rapid escalation of state expenditures and severe import dependency, which is unsustainable and violates intergenerational equity.

Inflation is soaring, and is currently close to 15%. This predictable manifestation of the “resource curse,” (sometimes called “Dutch Disease”) occurs in rentier economies which have more money in circulation than local producers have the capacity to absorb. In Timor-Leste, 70% of State spending goes overseas (according to the Minister of Finance), as well as nearly 90% of donor expenditure. Our 2010 balance of trade in goods and services was $994 million in imports, $20 million in non-oil exports, almost entirely unprocessed coffee. This house of cards will collapse when the oil fields run dry.

The “Curse,” exacerbated by short-term thinking and the believe that spending money is the best way to address problems, manifests itself in increasing gaps between rich and poor and between Dili and rural areas. Large constituencies do not share in benefits from the nation’s wealth, often leading to conflict, and little attention is given to non-oil revenues or economic sectors.

This year’s State Budget spends twice as much for overseas scholarships as for the National University, which provides employment and educates more than ten times as many students. It spends twice as much on feasibility studies for the oil industry as on agriculture, the basis of 80% of our people’s lives. Education and health – more difficult to solve but essential for development – gets less than one-fifth as much as physical infrastructure contracts with foreign companies. Prefabricated houses are imported for every village, rather than employing local contractors. Spending on goods and services from abroad almost always gets priority over investing in our own people and systems. When money is spent locally, there is often little attention to quality of results or future implications, as demonstrated by Pakote Referendum and Pakote Dezenvolvimentu Desentralizadu. If similar policies continue, Timor-Leste’s fragility may be shattered.

Security is more than the “security sector.”

Security means being able to live without fear of crime, invasion or violence – and also without fear of illiteracy, homelessness, unemployment, disease, starvation and other violations of human rights. Every citizen of every donor country expects that. But when development partners address “security” for Timor-Leste, they focus on men and women with guns intimidating everyone else from misbehaving. A police state is not the optimal solution to structural poverty, economic polarization, alienation and underdevelopment.

Similarly, avoiding or preventing physical conflict should not be the primary dimension for measuring effectiveness of a government or donor program. Improving the quality of people’s lives –as defined by international standards for human rights (economic and social as well as civil and political) – is also relevant. Starvation, diarrhea, kidney disease and toxic pollutants can be just as fatal as bullets, and far more Timorese people are killed by preventable diseases than by violence. For example, the great majority of the more than 2,000 Timorese children under five who die every year are victims of avoidable or curable conditions, while homicide took only 39 lives in Timor-Leste 2010.

Statebuilding is not the only objective.

Although this is Fragile States Principle #3, the second FSP (“Do no harm”) should ensure that donors do not harm national or personal economies, or violate human rights, either today or tomorrow, even if a state does so. Policies that squander non-renewable resources or permanently damage the environment or climate, violating future generations’ rights, do harm. Increasing the divide between a small affluent elite and impoverished masses, or the state’s reliance on force (i.e. repression) are also harms to be avoided.

If the Government fails to prioritize sectors such as health, education and food production for local consumption, donors (as well as NGOs, community groups and the private sector) should try to fill the gaps, rather than exacerbating the consequence of state weaknesses. Donors should help cover what falls between the cracks of the Strategic Development Plan. Similar concerns apply to local and international NGOs, which should maintain their non-governmental identities even if they become more dependent on government funding and direction. Local NGOs and other civil society organizations can provide grassroots, popular legitimacy and continuity between administrations and projects where other institutions fall short.

Much donor resources have been allocated to advisors and trainers to improve public servants’ capacity in the short term, but little attention is given to education for the broader population, which receives only 6% of the 2011 budget. Although the Human Capital Development Fund is less than 2% of the state budget, it is four times more than the state will spend on UNTL this year. If today’s students don’t receive solid primary and secondary education, will donors in 2030 pay for consultants to provide remedial “capacity-building” in basic arithmetic after Timor-Leste has depleted its oil reserves?

Donors should not follow recent, ill-advised trends by the World Bank, MDG and UNDP to use years of schooling as an indicator of education, but should focus on quality – are the children learning? In addition to building or refurbishing schools, more attention should be given to teachers, books, curricula and standards. Although the language controversy has complicated education ( “mother-tongue” curricula will add another level of complexity), a decade of effective effort could have made Portuguese work. Some policy-makers appear to think that a small educated elite is all Timor-Leste will need; donors should use pressure and resources to ensure quality basic education for all our children.

Prioritize prevention with long-term planning and earlier-warning analysis.

Political actors are still developing strategies for this new, evolving state. The most fundamental fact is that our economy depends entirely on selling off nonrenewable petroleum wealth from oil and gas fields that will be exhausted by 2023 (or 25 years later if Sunrise is developed). The country’s total petroleum revenues are barely enough to raise the population above the poverty line. When today’s babies are in secondary school, they will stop. Yet very little attention is goes to other sectors of the economy.

Much attention is given to “early warnings” that fail to anticipate disasters beyond a two-year horizon. The UNMIT mission closes next year, once the election has been survived. Like politicians in every democracy, Timor-Leste’s leaders focus on what can be done before the next election. A five-year Country Assistance Strategy passes for long-term planning.

The short-term perspective is exacerbated by the “project” orientation of many international agencies and donors. Building a state, developing a non-oil economy, and educating a child are not projects that can be done in a year and concluded with an evaluation of indicators and outcomes, followed by a new project. You can’t solve malnutrition with a cup of Frutamin, or overcome cancer with a Handiplast (Band-Aid).

The just-revealed Strategic Development Plan is a welcome change in timeframe (although some cynics say its main target is the 2012 election), and we encourage Development Partners to also think longer-term. Even though you cannot commit funding or involvement decades in the future, you can select and design programs – not projects – that will be sustainable and produce results over a longer time. This may require a shift in orientation, but it is essential to make your assistance effective. Timor-Leste has its own oil money today; what it needs is help building a strong basis for tomorrow.

Long-term investments in education, preventive health care, sustainable agricultural productivity, non-oil light industry, reduced dependency on imports and equitable distribution of wealth can help prevent social injustice and disintegration, which are difficult to avoid (as one can see in resource-export-dependent states as diverse as Nigeria, PNG, Libya and Iraq). When the oil runs out, Timor-Leste can only avoid “Goodbye development, welcome conflict” if a solid foundation has been built before then.

Similarly, early warning efforts to predict and prevent future conflict should address the social and personal causes of violence, as well as the symptoms. Dialogue between leaders and donors does not reduce alienation and social jealousy (class conflict) within the population. Handing out cash grants to disaffected groups (IDPs, petitioners, evictees, victims, youth gangs, veterans) has created a tradition of wheel-squeaking: others have learned that threatening to disrupt business as usual can win a share of state funds.

As our rapidly increasing population reaches the age of employment or gang membership, the danger increases. A common misguided response – viewing young men as a problem to be sent away or kept busy, rather than as resources which can help develop this country – does not serve the nation or its people well. Youth employment schemes are valuable to the extent that they lead to permanent jobs. 15,000 people enter the work force every year, far more than the UN will lay off. In 2024, after Bayu-Undan is dry, more than 30,000 Timorese will reach working age, and today’s youth will have their own families to provide for.

Timor-Leste is already impacted by climate change which will get worse in the future, largely because large industrial nations refused to listen to “early warnings” from climate scientists. If unpredictable weather, sub-normal dry seasons, and torrential rains continue to get worse, it will be harder to maintain infrastructure or agricultural productivity. This should be included in early warning planning, and donors should give attention to prevention as well as adaptation by reducing their own greenhouse gas emissions. It is an essential component of the fragility of many underdeveloped tropical countries, although the solutions should come– according to the principle of climate justice – from the countries represented by many development partners. In addition to aid for adaptation and mitigation, your countries should reduce your own greenhouse gases emissions, making small changes in your citizens’ lifestyles to prevent large disruptions in fragile states like Timor-Leste.

LH nia komentariu kona-ba Planu Estratejiku Dezenvolvimentu

2011-07-11T16:47:00.001+09:00

[This page in English]

Ida ne’e nudar sumário husi analiza inisial ba Planu Estratejiku Dezenvolviment (Ing ka Port.). Maske ami simu planu ne’e deit iha loron lima kotuk, Governu ezizi katak Parlamentu atu aprova planu ne’e ohin loron, tamba ne’e ami prepara komentariu atu informa sira nia diskusaun no Enkontru Parseiru Dezenvolvimentu. Ami nia komentariu pajina 14 ne’e (also English) inklui pontus importante tuir ma, aleinde atu foka sai omisoes, erru no asumsaun invalidu sira:

Planu Estratejiku Dezenvolvimentu (PED) ne’e nudar dokumentus importante, no halo mudansa barak ba versaun ne’ebe sirkula iha tinan kotuk. Maske, ne’e dokumentus boot, ho ideias foun barak, ne’ebe presiza duni diskusaun ida ne’ebe klean molok hetan aprovasaun. Ami hare katak ida ne’e iresponsavel katak Konsellu Ministru aprova planu ne’e hafoin ekontru kalan tomak, no ida ne’e sei sai inkonstitusional ba Parlamentu atu aprova planu ne’e menus semana ida hafoin sira simu esbosu ne’e husi Governu.
Planu ne’e inklui fokus ba kapital sosial nian, laos deit infraestrutura fiziku hanesan diskusaun sira ne’ebe akontese iha tinan balun liu ba. Ami hein katak orsamentu futuru nian sei refleita ba ida ne’e, no osan balun husi 52% Orsamentu Jeral Estadu 2011 ne’ebe aloka ba infraestrutura fiziku nian sei aloka fila fali ba edukasaun no saude.
Ami aseita katak planu ida ne’e laos orsamentu ida, maibe planu ne’e presiza ba atu liu fali mehi ida, no tenke inklui informasaun barak tan kona-ba oinsa atu finansia kustu planu ne’e no osan sira ne’e mai husi ne’ebe. Partikularmente, ami preokupa liu katak PED sei finansia liu husi halo divida, maibe iha dokumentu ne’e iha deit referensia oan ida, ne’ebe la spesifiku.
PED ne’e totalmente ignora tiha defisit komersiu Timor-Leste nian ne’ebe maka’as tebes ne’e, ho prioridade oituan atu hamenus importasaun. Ida ne’e inklui mos informasaun sala kona-ba matrikula eskola nian, inflasaun no dependensia ba petroleu. Ne’e optimistiku ne’ebe injustifikavel kona-ba posibilidade deskobrimentu kampu mina-rai nian iha futuru, exportasaun ba ASEAN, redusaun kresimentu populasaun nian.
PED tenke fokus liu ba infraestrutura humana no intelektual ba edukasaun (konstrusaun seidauk sufisiente), hadiak kualidade no mos kuantidade edukasaun, no suporta nesesidade Timor-Leste no ita nia povo sira, laos deit empregadores ne’ebe posivel.
Diskusaun pozitivu kona-ba protesaun ambiental iha PED ne’e hetan ameasa husi numeru projeitu ne’ebe perigozu ba ambiental ne’ebe dadauk ne’e lao hela lahoo analiza ba impaktu ambiental.
Analiza, informasaun no prioridade tan tenke foka ba enerzia renovavel.
Lei ba rai tenke rekonhese injustisa kolonial, sistema titulu nian labele fo amesa ba direitu rai nian ka halo diskriminasaun hasoru rikeza agrikultor kiak sira. Presiza liu tan konsultasaun kona-ba lei ba Rai, no Lei no PED tenke konsidera valor lolos husi rai ba povo sira, laos deit nia util ba investor sira.
Justisa Ekonomiku ba povo tomak, laos deit eradikasaun ba pobreza extrema, maibe tenke sai planu ekonomiku ida ne’ebe objektivu.
Agrikultura tenke promove soberani aihan. Agrikultura organiku, sustentavel, hamoris produtu sura ba konsumu lokal, tenke hetan prioridade, no agrikultor sira tenke involve iha kualker nivel atu halo desizaun ka implementasaun nian. “Revolusaun Matak” Modelo industrial, agrikultura ho entrada altu sei fo impaktu negativu ba tempu naruk
Timor-Leste presiza vizaun ida ne’ebe luan kona-ba dezenvolvimentu ekonomia. Desde iha ne’eba iha konsensu katak Timor-Leste presiza atu muda husi dependensia ba petroleu iha longo prazu, ami sente la diak katak prosesamentu petroleu mak uniku dezenvolvimentu industrial ne’ebe diskute. Oinsa ho prosesamentu agrukultura nian, ka industria kiik sira atu troka produtu sira ne’ebe importa? Kapital industria petroleu ne’ebe intensivu sei fo servisu oituan ba ema hotu, inklui Timor oan sira. Aloka ita nia intelektual hotu no rekursu finanseiru ba seitor petroleum obstrui mudansa ba ekonomia naun-petroleu hafoin rezerva mina-rai no gas hotu iha tinan 13 tan
Prosesu dadaun atu halo revizaun ba Lei Fundu Petroleu, kria kompania mina-rai nasional TimorGAP, investe maka’as iha estudu fisibilidade ba Koridor Petroleu Tasi Mane kontrariu ho tarjeitu planu nian no halo dependensia ba petroleu ida ne’ebe at liu tan no ameasa husi instabilidade ekonomia tempu naruk nian. Sira presiza atu realiza ho kuidadu liu, no iha ekilibru kontra ideias no nesesidade husi seitor seluk
Aumenta turismu presiza esforsu ne’ebe maka’as duke hari infraestrutura fiziku.
Investimentu seitor privadu sira tenke fo benefisiu, laos atu uza hotu rekursu povo nian. Kua taxa, zona ekonomia special no favour seluk ba bisnis estranjeiru nian imposivel atu produs vantazem ba ita nia povo. Investimentu estadu nain iha atividade bisnis nian, hanesan Tasi Mane no importasaun fos, presiza analiza ida ne’ebe kuidadu husi nia kustu no benefisiu nian.
Planu seitor seguransa tenke serve ba interese nasional, rekursu umanu no orsamental ne’ebe gasta ona ba F-FDTL bele aloka fila fali bainhira ameasa husi rai-liur kiik
Jestaun seitor publiku no boa-governasaun sei haforsa liu tan husi dezenha strutura institusional atu luta kontra korupsaun, no haforsa sistema-luan Governu nian ba orsamentu, aprovizionamentu, kontratu, salariu no informasaun publika nian iha ajensia estadu tomak nia laran.
Maske seksaun makroekonomiku ne’e diak liu ona duke esbosu primeiru, maibe ida ne’e nafatin iha frakeza, no presiza fokus liu tan ba natureza rendimentu riku-soin rekursu naun renovavel. Grafika ne’e onestu liu tan kona-ba dependensia petroleum, inflasaun, kresimentu populasaun no planu ba gastus no imprestimus iha futuru hodi finansia planu ida ne’e.
Ita labele fiar katak Timor-Leste bele atinzi real, longu prazu, GDP naun-petroleu annual nuan iha 11.3%, liu fali nasaun sira seluk nia istoria dadaun. Exepsaun Xina, nasaun sira ho performa diak liu tan atinzi deit 6.5%-7.5% no ne’e la imazinavel atu ekspeta Timor-Leste bele iha kresimentu dala rua liu fali buat ne’ebe sira bele. Nivel rapida atual nian eskalada husi gastus publiku nian, motor principal ba ita nia ekonomia, imposivel atu sustentar.

Informasaun seluk, inklui proposta PED no tekstu tomak husi ami nia komentariu, bele hetan iha La’o Hamutuk nia pajina web iha Ingles no Tetum.

LH comment on Strategic Development Plan

2011-07-11T12:22:00.002+09:00

[Pajina ida ne'e iha Tetum.]

This is a summary of La’o Hamutuk’s initial analysis of the proposed Strategic Development Plan (SDP) (also Portuguese). Although we only received the 230-page document only five days ago, the Government demands that Parliament approve it today, so we hope to inform their discussion and the Development Partners Meeting. The following are important points in our 13-page commentary (also Tetum), which also identifies omissions, errors and invalid assumptions in the SDP:

The Strategic Development Plan (SDP) is an important document, and is greatly improved over the version circulated last year. However, it is a large document, with many new ideas, and deserves thorough discussion before being enacted. We find it irresponsible that the Council of Ministers approved it after an all-night meeting, and it would be unconstitutional for Parliament to approve it less than a week after they received it.
The Plan includes a welcome focus on social capital, not only physical infrastructure as pervaded last year’s discussions. We hope that future budget priorities reflect this, and that some of the 52% of the 2011 State Budget allocated to physical infrastructure will be redirected to education and health.
We agree that a plan is not a budget, but it needs to be more than a dream, and should include more information about what it will cost and where the money will come from. In particular, we are concerned that the SDP will be financed by taking out loans, but there is only a passing reference to this in the document, with no specifics.
The SDP totally ignores Timor-Leste’s mammoth trade deficit, with little priority to reducing imports. It includes incorrect information about school enrollment, inflation, and petroleum dependency. It is unjustifiably optimistic regarding possible future oil discoveries, exports to ASEAN, reducing population growth,.
The SDP should focus more on human and intellectual infrastructure for education (buildings are not enough), improving the quality as well as the quantity of education, and supporting the needs of Timor-Leste and our people, not just possible employers.
The SDP’s positive discussion of environmental protection is threatened by a number of environmentally dangerous projects currently underway with no environmental review.
More analysis, information and priority should be given to renewable energy.
Land laws must recognize colonial injustices, and titling systems should not endanger land rights or discriminate against cash-poor farmers. More consultation is needed on the Land Law, and the Law and the SDP should consider the true value of land for people, not only its use by investors.
Economic justice for all our people, not only the eradication of extreme poverty, should be the plan’s economic objective.
Agriculture should promote food sovereignty. Organic, sustainable agriculture, growing products for local consumption, should be the priority, and farmers must be involved at every level of decision-making and implementation. The “Green Revolution” model of industrial, high-input agriculture has severe negative impacts in the long term.
Timor-Leste needs a broader vision of economic development. Since there is consensus that Timor-Leste needs to move away from oil-dependency in the long-term, we are disappointed that petroleum processing is the only industrial development discussed. What about agricultural processing, or light industry to replace imported products? The capital-intensive oil industry will provide few jobs for anyone, including Timorese. Allocating most of our intellectual and financial resources to the petroleum sector obstructs moving to a non-oil economy after oil and gas reserves are used up in 13 years.
Current processes to revise the Petroleum Fund Law, create the TimorGAP national oil company, and invest heavily in feasibility studies for the Tasi Mane Petroleum Corridor contradict the goals of the plan and exacerbate our dependence on petroleum and the danger of long-term economic instability. They need to be undertaken with more care, and balanced against ideas and needs of other sectors.
Increasing tourism requires more effort than merely building physical infrastructure.
Private sector investment should provide benefit, not use up people’s resources. Tax cuts, special economic zones and other favors for foreign businesses are unlikely to produce advantages for our people. State investment in business activities, such as Tasi Mane and rice importation, needs more careful analysis of its costs and benefits.
The security sector plans should serve the national interest. Human and budgetary resources spent on F-FDTL can be reallocated as external threats become smaller.
Public Sector management and good governance will be strengthened by designing institutional structures to resist corruption, and by having all state agencies use strengthened, government-wide systems for budgeting, procurement, hiring, salaries and public information.
Although the Macroeconomics section is better than earlier drafts, it is still weak, and needs more focus on the temporary nature of non-renewable resource wealth revenues. It should be more honest about oil dependency, inflation, population growth and plans for future spending and borrowing to finance this plan.
It is inconceivable that Timor-Leste can achieve real, long-term, annual non-oil GDP growth of 11.3%, higher than any country in recent history. Other than China, the best performing countries have grown 6.5% - 7.5%, and it is wishful thinking to expect Timor-Leste to grow nearly twice as fast as they could. Current rapidly escalating levels of public spending, the primary driver for our economy, are impossible to sustain.

Additional information and analysis, including the proposed SDP and the full text of our comments, is available from La’o Hamutuk’s website in English and Tetum, which we will continue to update.

Strategic Development Plan & proposed laws online

2011-07-07T00:24:00.003+09:00

La'o Hamutuk has scanned and posted the Portuguese-language, 234-page proposed Strategic Development Plan that the Government presented to Parliament this week. The Prime Minister has urged Parliament to approve it on Monday, 11 July, before the Development Partners meeting.

For the SDP documents, and more information, click this link.

Update: On Thursday afternoon, the SDP was posted to the Government portal website in English (16 MB) and Portuguese (4 MB).

On 11 July, as Parliament began debating the Plan, La'o Hamutuk circulated our preliminary analysis.

Earlier this week, Parliament received two other important legislative proposals which were passed by the Council of Ministers in June, and we have posted the Portuguese texts and explanatory memoranda, and translated them into English. Scroll up from the links below for background, analysis and other documents:
Revision to the Petroleum Fund Law

Regime for taking on external debt

Aprezentasaun Budget and Economy

2011-07-05T15:44:00.000+09:00

On July 5, La'o Hamutuk made a presentation on Timor-Leste's Economy and State Budget to the conference on Knowledge, Attitudes and Skills for Timor-Leste’s Development organized by UNTL and Victoria University at Dili Convention Centre. We have posted our presentation, which discusses hard realities relating to economics, budget and development in Timor-Leste to our website in English and Tetum.

Iha loron 5 fulan Julhu, La'o Hamutuk fo aprezentasaun ida kona ba Ekonomia no Orsamentu Estadu iha konferensia kona-ba Konhesimentu, Atitude no Kapasidade ba Dezenvolve Timor-Leste, organiza husi UNTL no Universidade Victoria iha Merkadu Lama. Ami tau ona ami nia aprezentasaun iha web iha Tetum no Ingles. Nia diskuti realidade kona-ba ekonomia, orsamentu estado no dezenvolvimentu iha Timor-Leste.

Is China aiding Timor-Leste, or vice versa?

2011-06-21T12:18:00.001+09:00

Yesterday, the Macauhub news service published East Timor signs agreements with China for aid and to boost cooperation.The article begins "The government of East Timor Friday in Dili signed two agreements with China for Chinese aid to Eat Timor’s development ..." and ends "In 2010 trade between China and East Timor totalled US$43.08 million, which was a year on year rise of 80 percent."

"Eat Timor" in the first sentence may be appropriate. The last sentence is more misleading.

Virtually the entire $43.08 million is partial payment for the ill-fated national electricity project that the government of Timor-Leste is buying from China Nuclear Industry 22nd Construction Company (CNI22).

According to the budget execution report, Timor-Leste spent $89,995,951 on the national electricity project during 2010. Of this, $40 million went to PT Puri Akraya Engineering (PAE, the Indonesian company to which the power stations were reassigned from CNI22 last September) on 30 December, and about $2 million went to ELC/Bonifica, the Italian joint venture which is supervising the construction. The remainder, minus a few thousand dollars in administrative costs, would have been paid to CNI22.

According to ELC/Bonifica, RDTL's payments to CNI22 during 2010 totalled $45.01 million.

If the Macauhub article is correct, there is no trade between Timor-Leste and China other than our Government's purchase of the electricity system from a Chinese company.

Timor Leste's 2011 state budget allocates $449 for the national electricity project (as well as $48 million for EDTL). RDTL paid $39.5 million to CNI22 between January and April 2011, with a remaining balance on CNI22's contract of about $171 million. "Trade" between China and Timor-Leste will increase again this year.

According to the Transparency Portal, RDTL has already spent $161.1 on the electricity project in 2011 -- $15.8 million in March and $145.4 million in April -- comprising 61% of all executed state expenditures so far this year. This includes $48.1 million to PAE for the Hera and Betano generating stations and $1.5 million to China Shandong International (CSI) for expansion of the existing Comoro power station.

With aid and trade like this, who needs corruption?

LH submisaun kona-ba Lei Anti-Korupsaun

2011-06-17T16:43:00.000+09:00

Iha loron 16 Junu, La'o Hamutuk fo submisaun ba Komisaun C, Parlamentu Nasional, kona-ba esbosu Lei Anti-Korupsaun. Ami nia pontu prinsipal hanesan ne'e:

Korupsaun parte husi Malisan Rekursu
Importansia atu estabelese padraun prevensaun ne’ebe maka’as.
Konflitu ba interese
Definisaun statutu Funsionariu Publiku la klaru.
Kodigu Penal tenke koresponde ba Lei Anti Korupsaun.
Lei bele foka liu ba korupsaun nivel altu duke korupsaun nivel kiik.
Komentariu ba artigu balun, inklui
La limita masimu pena multa nian ka aumenta ba $100,000,000.
Inklui "familia nukleu" iha artigu kona-ba Enriquecemento Illicito
Hasai artigu fo prioridade ba kazu korupsaun iha tribunal
Fo protesaun metin liu ba sasin no informador
Fo sansaun makaas liu ba korupsaun sistematiku nian
Estadu iha direitu atu prende eransa koruptor.
Justisa sosial

Atu hetan informasaun tan, bele liga ba iha ne'e.

LH husu Prezidente atu sura didiak risku no legalidade TimorGAP

2011-06-13T13:42:00.000+09:00

Iha 25 Maiu, Konseilu Ministru Timor-Leste nian aprova Dekretu-Lei atu kria Kompania Mina-rai Nasional ho naran Timor GAP, EP (hodi troka naran PETRONATIL). Prezidente Jose Ramos-Horta tenke deside atu promulga ka veta ba Dekretu-Lei ne’e.

Iha nasaun seluk, kompania mina-rai estadu nian ne’e dala barak akompanha ho pratika anti-demokrasia no illegal, korupsaun, estragus ambiental no konsekuensia negative seluk-seluk. La’o Hamutuk fiar katak kria kompania mina-rai nasional sei fo impaktu ba futuru Timor-Leste no tenke halo ho kuidadu, no tuir maneira Konstitusional.

Tamba ne’e, ami hakerek karta ida ba Prezidente (Ingles) husu nia atu foti desizaun ne’ebe matenek ne’ebe sei benefisia povo Timor-Leste tomak no salvaguarda rekursu naun-renovavel ita nia nasaun nian. Ami nia karta ne’e akompania ho submisaun (Ingles) ne’ebe ami haruka ba Sekertariadu Estadu Rekursu Naturais iha Novembru tinan kotuk kona-ba esbosu tuan legislasaun ida ne’e, tamba ami seidauk hetan versaun final. Ami nia submisaun foti pontus importante sira hanesan tuir mai:

Kompania Mina-rai Nasional ne’e perigozu, no ita tenke aprende husi falansu no susesu husi rai seluk.
Kompania Mina-rai Nasional tenke estabelese husi lei Parlamentu, laos dekretu lei Governu nian.
Kompania Mina-rai Nasional tenke serve povo Timor-Leste.
Kompania Mina-rai Nasional tenke tuir regulamentu ba ajensia estadu nian.
Kompania Mina-rai Nasional presiza atu transparante no akuntavel.
Kompania Mina-rai Nasional tenke dezeinha atu prevene korupsaun.
Kompania Mina-rai Nasional labele hetan poder ne’ebe maka’as liu fali saida mak nia hakarak.
Kompania Mina-rai Nasional nia lukru tenke ba liu Fundu Petroleu, laos investe deit iha kompania.
Kompania Mina-rai Nasional labele hetan poder atu halo impresta ka fan asoens (bonds)/obligasi.

Tuir ligasaun ida ne’e atu hetan informasaun no analiza tan kona-ba asuntu ne’e.

LH asks President to weigh TimorGAP's risks and legality

2011-06-09T10:29:00.002+09:00

On 25 May, Timor-Leste's Council of Ministers approved a Decree-Law to create a national oil company (NOC) named Timor GAP, EP (the name has been changed from PETRONATIL). President Jose Ramos-Horta is deciding whether to promulgate or veto this Decree-Law.

In other countries, state-owned oil companies are often accompanied by anti-democratic or illegal practices, corruption, environmental destruction and other negative consequences. La'o Hamutuk believes that creating an NOC will impact on the future of Timor-Leste and must be done in a careful, Constitutional manner.

Therefore, we wrote a letter to the President (Tetum original) urging him to make a wise decision which will benefit all of Timor-Leste's people and safeguard our nation's non-renewable resources. Our letter was accompanied by the submission we made to the State Secretariat for Natural Resources last November about an earlier draft of this legislation, although we have since obtained the version approved (Portuguese original) by the Council of Ministers. Our submission raised the following main points:

National oil companies are dangerous, and we should learn from failures as well as successes.
The NOC should be established by Parliamentary law, not decree-law.
The NOC should serve the people of Timor-Leste.
This Decree-Law must be written clearly.
The NOC should follow the rules for state agencies.
The NOC needs to be transparent and accountable.
The NOC should be designed to prevent corruption.
The NOC should not be given more power than it needs.
The NOC’s profits must be paid into the Petroleum Fund, not reinvested in the company.
The NOC should not be empowered to borrow or issue bonds.

Follow this link for more information and analysis about this issue.

Audit confirms problems with electricity project

2011-06-07T14:01:00.001+09:00

In April 2011, the Australian auditor Deloitte Touche Tomatsu presented a report on EDTL to the Prime Minister, who delivered it to Parliament on 27 May. Deloitte did not perform a financial audit, but reviewed a number of administrative and technical aspects of the current and future electricity supply in Timor-Leste and made about 50 recommendations.

Electricity will absorb 39% of Timor-Leste’s 2011 State Budget, and the Deloitte report increases transparency about this often-hidden sector. Although Deloitte states that its report is for the internal use of Government and Parliament, it contains essential information for Timor-Leste’s citizens, so La'o Hamutuk has scanned and translated it from Portuguese to English and posted it on our web site: scanned Portuguese original (6MB), Portuguese text (1MB), English text (1 MB) and English Executive Summary and Recommendations (0.1 MB)

The report covers EDTL’s activities from 2009 through September 2010, and discusses the agency’s administrative, financial, procurement, fuel, governance and maintenance problems, as well as how it interacts with the Ministry of Infrastructure, Pakote Referendum contractors and management contractor Manitoba Hydro.

Deloitte also reveals quite a bit about the heavy oil power plants and national electricity grid currently being built by Puri Akraya Engineering, Wartsila and Chinese Nuclear Industry No 22.
Among the key points related to the national project (parenthesized numbers are sections in the report):

EDTL will need more than the one year of training allocated before it can maintain and operate the new national grid. (3.4.4)
Plans have not been made to connect new grid and substations with existing distribution systems. (3.4.5)
The new Dili substation won’t have enough circuit breakers. (3.4.5)
Comoro generating station is being expanded, although it will be closed soon. (3.4.6)
The new substations won’t have enough reserve transformer capacity. (3.4.7)
The 2008 contract with CNI22 hasn’t been revised to reflect the current situation. It is inconsistent with the 2010 contract with Puri Akraya Engineering. (4.2.1.1)
The contract awarded to the newly-created entity Puri Akraya Engineering last year was tendered with “significant difficulties” and no multi-supplier consultation. (4.2.1.2)
The government doesn’t have enough qualified engineers to oversee the project. (4.2.2)
The directors of Puri Akraya Engineering (PAE) are Indonesians Eng Ho Tan, Dany Subrata, Raul Puri and Chander Vinod Laroya. (Annex I)
The first two shareholders in PAE, in July and August 2010, were Full Blossom Ltd (Hong Kong) and Pearl Energy Worldwide Ltd (British Virgin Islands). (Annex I)
69% of PAE shares are held by Dooks Group Holdings Ltd of the British Virgin Islands, with the balance equally divided between PT Puri Energi Kenchana and Akraya International PT, both of Jakarta Selatan. The total value of shares issued is $7.8 million. (Annex I)
CNI22 has subcontracted to Sichuan Electric Power Design Institute, Central Southern China Hubei Electric Power Engineering Consultation & Supervising Co. Ltd, Xi’an Marine Equipment Engineering Research Academy, Xi’an Tianhong Electric Appliance Co. Ltd. and Ningbo Huyong Electric Power Material Co. Ltd. (Annex J)
PAE has subcontracted to Wartsila Finland Oy, PT Wartsila Indonesia, PT Wijaya Karya insan Pertiwi, PT Rekayasa Industri, PT ABB Sakti Indonesia, PT Samapta Nusantara, and IOT Infrastructure & Energy Services Ltd. (Annex J)

If EDTL adopts Deloitte’s recommendations about management, maintenance and day-to-day operations, today’s electricity supply in Dili and other district capitals may improve. However, we continue to wonder if administrative and technical fixes can repair the fundamental mistakes with the expensive, polluting, ill-conceived, poorly-designed, sloppily-constructed, obsolete-technology, very late, heavy oil-fueled power plants and centralized national grid.

Former Woodside rep blames their "blundering arrogance" for Sunrise impasse

2011-06-06T19:35:00.001+09:00

La'o Hamutuk has just published Cowboys, Ogres and Donors: A Decade of Corporate Social Responsibility in Practice by Mandy White, who represented Woodside in Timor-Leste in 2007-2008. The paper sharply criticizes Woodside's "ogres at the helm" and "sycophantic senior staff" for taking a Public Relations approach to Social Responsibility, "not making even tokenistic efforts" to develop Timor-Leste. Whyte describes the company's "blundering arrogance" in the negotiations over the Greater Sunrise oil and gas fields: "Woodside steadfastly refused to regard the Timor-Leste Government as a partner in the development of the Sunrise fields, seemingly characterising them not only as a 'thorn in the side,' but also as devious and untrustworthy. ... [D]riving forward to a final investment decision without the Timor-Leste Government demonstrates an arrogant lack of regard for the relationship."

Follow this link for information about the debate over Greater Sunrise.

Cowboys, Ogres and Donors
A Decade of CSR in Practice – NZ, Australia, Timor-Leste and Indonesia
By Mandy Whyte, May 2011

Web-published by La'o Hamutuk at http://www.laohamutuk.org/Oil/Sunrise/2011/WhyteCSRMay2011.pdf

Abstract

This paper looks at examples of the community relations practices by international mining companies within the framework of two traditional approaches: public relations and community development (or Corporate Social Responsibility). It argues that the second is a more effective means to gain mutually beneficial outcomes for the companies and the communities with whom and within they operate, particularly in the developing world where power differentials are greater.

It explores why, in the era of CSR, Woodside Energy Ltd has been ineffective in working with the Government of Timor-Leste and how it has created an impasse that has stalled the development of the Greater Sunrise gas field.

A third approach to community relations is put forward, ‘Us and Them’, which suggests CSR doesn't work for some companies - not because it is not understood - but because these companies do not have the will to apply it. While there are many tools available for CSR, some companies have not yet worked out why they should use them.

It concludes that forced legal compliance, being taken for example by Indonesia, may be necessary to curb unprofessional and ‘ogreist’ practices of companies working in developing countries.

Celebrate/Selebra LH's new office no aniversariu

2011-05-23T11:15:00.001+09:00

La'o Hamutuk was founded on 20 May 2000, and we will celebrate our eleventh anniversary on Friday, 27 May 2011, starting at 4 pm. This party will also inaugurate our new office on Rua dos Martires da Patria in Bebora, Dili, across from San Carlos school.

We want to say "thank you" and "welcome" to all our supporters, colleagues, neighbors and friends, and hope that you will join us for this happy event.

La'o Hamutuk hahu iha loron 20 Maiu 2000, no ita sei selebra aniversariu ba dala sanulu-resin-ida iha loron Sesta, 27 Maiu 2011, hahu tuku 4 lokraik. Festa ida ne'e mos sei inaugura ami nia eskritoriu foun, iha Rua dos Martires da Patria iha Bebora, Dili, iha Eskola San Carlos nia oin.

Ami hato'o dahuluk ami nia "Bemvindo" no agradesimentu ba La'o Hamutuk nia apoiante sira, kolega sira vizinu sira no belun sira, no konvida ita boot sira hotu atu partisipa iha eventu haksolok ida ne'e.

Obrigado ba ita boot nia partisipasaun.

LH fo treinamentu kona-ba Orsamentu Jeral Estadu

2011-05-19T10:07:00.000+09:00

Iha fulan Marsu no Abril tinan 2011, La’o Hamutuk koopera hamutuk ho Fundasaun Mahein no Asosiasaun HAK, hodi halo treinamentu kona-ba Orsamentu Estadu 2011 durante loron tolu nia laran ba Sosiedade Sivil sira ne’ebe nia baze iha Dili no mos balun husi distritu sira hanesan Lautem no Oe-cusse.

Treinamentu ne’e foka liu ba seitor defeza no seguransa, seitor ne’ebe Fundasaun Mahein no Asosiasaun HAK tau-matan ba, maibe treinamentu ne’e mos inklui konseitu balun ne’ebe relevante ba Orsamentu Jeral Estadu nian hodi ajuda sosiedade sivil sira atu oinsa halo analiza. Ami tama aprezentasaun Powerpoint no dokumentu ruma husi treinamentu ida ne'e iha La'o Hamutuk nia website, atu fahe informasaun ba ema hotu. Ami mos iha planu atu fo treinamentu tan kona-ba asuntu importante ida ne'e.

Materia treinamentu nian kobre topiku sira hanesan:

1. Fundasaun
Inklui fundasaun legal, konseitu legal, gastus no reseitas ba orsamentu, Fundu Espesial no ezekusaun orsamentu.

2. Fontes Informasaun
Topiku ne’e atu ajuda partisipantes sira hodi bele asesu ba informasaun kona-ba alokasaun, gastus no reseitas OJE nian, no mos informasaun seluk ne’ebe sira presiza relasiona ho sira nia fokus area. Informasaun ne’ebe uza tenke mai husi dokumentus legal ka formal, bai-bain mai husi instituisaun estadu, hanesan website Ministeriu Finansas, Autoridade Nasional Petroleu, Autoridade Bankaria no Pagamentu (BPA), Jornal da Republika, no Portal Transparansia. Aleinde ne’e, iha mos informasaun sira ne’ebe mai husi organizasaun ne’ebe halo analiza, ezemplu website La’o Hamutuk, FMI, Banku Mundial, UNMIT no relatoriu Komisaun C Parlamentu Nasional. No mos bele uza informasaun sira ne’ebe mai husi media no politikus nain sira, maibe labele fiar lalais ba informasaun sira ne’e, presiza kompara didiak ho dokumentus legal, tamba dala ruma la konsistente ka reprezenta deit sira nia interese politiku.

3. Asuntu Importante
Topiku ne’e koaliu liu asuntu sira ne’ebe iha relasaun ho kriasaun Fundu Infraestrutura, PEDN, ADN, ezekusaun orsamentu, gasta liu ESI (Fundu Petroleu), revizaun Lei Fundu Petroleu, osan restu (balansiu) husi tinan orsamental kotuk, portal transparansia, sustentabilidade ekonomia, imprestimu no debe.

Bele liga ba website La’o Hamutuk atu hetan material aprezentasaun no pajina web kona-ba Orsamentu Jeral Estadu 2011 nian.

UNDP publika ona Relatoriu Dezenvolvimentu Umanu Nasional

2011-05-18T17:59:00.000+09:00

Hafoin hakerek relatoriu ne’e durante tinan tolu nia laran, Programa Nasoens Unidas nian ba Dezenvolvimentu (UNDP) publika ona sira nia Relatoriu Dezenvolvimentu Umanu ba dala tolu ba Timor-Leste, Jere Rekursu Naturál ba Dezenvolvimentu Umanu: Dezenvolve Ekonomia Naun- Petrolífera hodi alkansa ODM sira (English). Relatoriu ne’e lansa husi Prezidente Republika Jose Ramos-Horta iha 3 Maiu 2011, ho observasaun husi chefe UNDP nian Finn Reske-Nielsen, ekonomista Rui Gomes, Dr. Rui Maria Araujo (Konseilu Estadu), Deputadu Joaquim Amaral, Reitor UNTL Aurelio Guteres, no Charles Scheiner husi La’o Hamutuk. UNDP distribui Sumariu Ezekutivu (mos iha Ingles), Komunikadu Imprensa ida (mos iha Ingles) no sumariu estatistiku (mos iha Ingles).

La’o Hamutuk nia komentariu mak Timor-Leste tenke Manan Independensia husi Petroleu (mos iha PDF ka Ingles), inklui slide iha Tetum. Apezar apoiu objetivu relatoriu ne’e, ami konsentra ba pontus balun, inklui:


Xina nudar nasaun uniku mak atinzi kresimentu GDP double-digit longo prazu, no Timor-Leste tenke halo planu ho metas ne’ebe realistiku ne’ebe menus husi 7%.	UNDP muda oinsa kalkula Indeks Dezenvolvimentu Umanu hodi uza GNI duke GDP no tinan eskola nian duke alfabetizasaun, ne’ebe redus tiha nia utilidade ba ekonomia ne’ebe dependente maka’as teb-tebes ba eksportasaun petroleum ho laiha esperiensia ho rekursu ne’ebe oituan.


Ohin loron Timor-Leste halo gastus barak ona kompara ho tinan 2009, bainhira mayor parte husi dadus relatoriu nian ne’e rekolha ona. Dotasaun ba edukasaun no saude tun husi 15.6% ba 9.6%, maske nasaun sira ne’ebe halo progresu atu atinzi Objetivu Dezenvolvimentu Mileniun (MDGs) gasta 28% sobre investimentu esensial sira ne’e ba umanu.	Populasaun Timor-Leste nian rapidamente sae, labarik sira ho idade menus tinan 10 barak liu dala rua kompara ho jovens sira ho tinan 20-29. Ohin loron ema 15,000 sei tamba ba forsa trabalho nian kada tinan, iha 2023, bainhira Bayu-Undan maran tiha, numeru ne’e sei sae ba 34,000.


Total rikusoin petroleum Timor-Leste nian limitadu teb-tebes, no nia rendimentu sei labele finansia aktividade estadu nian iha futuru hanesan nivel ohin loron $2.65/kada ema/kada loron, mesmu ho hipotezes ne’ebe optimista.	Politika gastus ohin loron nian sei hamamuk Fundu Petroleu iha tinan 2030.

Tuir ligasaun iha leten atu hetan informasaun, dokumentus no referensia ne’ebe kompletu kona-ba kestaun kritika sira ne’e.

UNDP National Human Development Report released

2011-05-16T11:37:00.001+09:00

After three years of work, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has released its third Human Development Report for Timor-Leste, Managing Natural Resources for Human Development: Developing the Non-Oil Economy to Achieve the MDGs. The report was launched by President Jose Ramos-Horta on 3 May 2011, with observations by UNDP head Finn Reske-Nielsen, economist Rui Gomes, Dr. Rui Maria Araujo (Council of State), Deputadu Joaquim Amaral, UNTL Rector Aurelio Guterres, and Charles Scheiner from La'o Hamutuk. UNDP distributed an Executive Summary (also Tetum), a Press Release (also Tetum) and a Statistics summary (also Tetum).

La'o Hamutuk's comment Timor-Leste Must Win Independence from Petroleum (also PDF or Tetum), included a Tetum slide show. While supporting the objectives of the report, we focused on several points, including:


China is the only nation which has achieved long-term double-digit GDP growth, and we should plan with realistic goals of less than 7%.	UNDP changed how it calculates the Human Development Index to use GNI instead of GDP and years of school instead of literacy, which reduces its usefulness for Timor-Leste's extremely petroleum-export-dependent economy with an inexperienced, under-resourced educational system.


Timor-Leste spends much more now than in 2009, when much of the report's data was collected. The allocation for education and health dropped from 15.6% to 9.6%, although countries making progress toward the MDGs spend 28% on these essential investments in human resources,	Timor-Leste's population is growing rapidly, and there are twice as many children under 10 as young adults aged 20-29. Today 15,000 people enter the labor force every year; in 2023, when Bayu-Undan is exhausted, it will be 34,000.


Timor-Leste's total petroleum wealth is extremely limited, and incomefrom cannot fund future State activities at today's levels of$2.65/person/day, even with optimistic assumptions.	Current spending policies could entirely empty the Petroleum Fund by 2030.

Follow the links above for more complete explanation, documents and references on these critical issues.

Provide input to TL Fragile States Paper

2011-05-10T09:00:00.000+09:00

For Tetum, more up-to-date information and documents see La'o Hamutuk's web page on this process.

During the last two years, Timor-Leste has become one of the leaders of international processes relating to "Fragile States" and aid effectiveness. In 2010, Dili hosted an "International Dialogue on Peacebuilding and Statebuilding," and a follow-up conference will be held in Korea later in 2011. The National Directorate for Aid Effectiveness in the Ministry of Finance is consulting people on Timor-Leste's Country Paper for this process, and received comments on a mid-April draft by 6 May. La'o Hamutuk made a submission, as have others.

This process is based on the "Principles for Good International Engagement in Fragile States and Situations" which emerged from many conferences trying to understand why foreign aid often produces few results:

Take context as the starting point.
Ensure all activities do no harm.
Focus on state building as the central objective.
Prioritise prevention.
Recognise the links between political, security and development objectives.
Promote non discrimination as a basis for inclusive and stable societies.
Align with local priorities in different ways and in different contexts.
Agree on practical co-ordination mechanisms between international actors.
Act fast… but stay engaged long enough to give success a chance.
Avoid pockets of exclusion (“aid orphans”).

The Ministry of Finance asked if international engagement in Timor-Leste is consistent with each Fragile States Principle, or fails to respect it. They hope to make aid here more effective, and to eliminate obstacles. If some of the Fragile States Principles should be amended or do not apply to Timor-Leste, that would also be good to discuss.

Public Meeting on Alternative Energy Law

2011-04-26T09:53:00.000+09:00

(Tetum iha kraik)

How Alternative Energy Development Can Contribute to
Social, Cultural, Economic and Environmental Development
Thursday, 28 April 2011 9:00 am - 12:30 pm
NGO Forum meeting room, Kaikoli (beside the Ministry of Health)

Speakers: Avelino Coelho (Secretary of State for Energy Policy), Demetrio de Amaral (Director, Haburas Foundation) and Rui Pinto (academic representative)

The Government's Development Plan says that energy has an important role in improving social, economic and environmental development. The State Secretariat for Energy Policy (SEPE) has carried out many programs in alternative energy, including solar panels, jatropha biofuels and biogas. In addition, SEPE has developed an Alternative Energy Law.

La'o Hamutuk has organized this event to help people participate and share their thoughts about this law. The meeting will be in Tetum, although informal English translation can be arranged if necessary.

------------------------------------------------------------

Tuir Kuarto Governu Konstitusional iha Planu Desenvolvimento hateten katak setor energia sai papel importante atu hadiak setor sosial, ekonomia no meiu-ambiente. Aktualmente Governu AMP liu husi Sekretariu Estadu Politika Energetika halo ona programas barak kona ba energia alternativa hanesan, uza solar panel, ahi-oan mutin, biogas, nsst. Alem ne'e, Sekretariu Estadu Politika Energetika desenvolve ona Lei ba Energia Alternativa nian.

La'o Hamutuk hanoin katak importante atu fahe informasaun kona ba asuntu sira ne'e ba publiku atu nune'e publiku bele partisipa hodi fahe mos sira nia hanoin kona ba lei ne'e. Tan ne'e La'o Hamutuk organiza Enkontru Publiku ho Tema "Oinsa Desenvolvimentu Energia Alternativa Kontribue ba Desenvolvimentu sosial, kultura, ekonomia no meiu-ambiente."

Narador sira mak hanesan: Senhor Avelino Coelho nudar Sekretariu Estadu Politika Energetika, Senhor Demetrio de Amaral nudar Diretor Fundasaun Haburas no Senhor Rui Pinto nudar Representante Akademiku.

Enkontro Publiku ne'e sei halao iha:
Loron:       Kinta, 28 Abril 2011
Horas:      09:00-12:30 OTL
Fatin:        Salaun Fongtil, Kaikoli (iha Ministeriu Saude nia sorin)

Ba ita boot sira nia atensaun no partisipasaun ami hatoo obrigada wain.

EITI 2009 report to be launched 25 March

2011-03-22T14:20:00.001+09:00

Timor-Leste's compliance with the international Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative was accepted in July 2010, following the publication in late 2009 of its report on oil and gas payments here during 2008. The 2009 report will be released on Friday 25 March 2011, 3:00-6:00 pm, at the Ex-Mercado Lama Convention Center. This event will include comments from the NGO Forum, an EITI working group civil society representative, an oil company representative, a government representative and the President of Parliament.

We hope that this report, released more than 14 months after the reporting period, will provide important information about oil and gas revenues during 2009, which comprised about 80% of our economy and paid for 95% of state activities. This report will complete other 2009 annual reports which omitted data, including those from the National Petroleum Authority and the Ministry of Finance on the Petroleum Fund.

A pre-release version of Timor-Leste's 2009 report was analyzed by Revenue Watch Institute and compared with those from 22 other EITI-engaged countries. Timor-Leste's report ranks a little worse than average, as summarized in this excerpt from the RWI website.

For more information on EITI in Timor-Leste (mos iha lian Tetum), including the 2008 and 2009 reports and commentary, see La'o Hamutuk's website.

Update 6 April: La'o Hamutuk has posted the official version of the 2009 EITI Report to our website in four languages.

Heavy Oil project collapsing under its own weight

2011-03-16T18:16:00.002+09:00

La'o Hamutuk recently obtained the January 2011 report from the Italian company overseeing the $900 million national electricity project, and we have added its information to our web page on this project, which contains background and context, as does our blog entry late last year. This project will use 3/4 of the $599 million allocated to Infrastructure Fund for 2011.

The January report portrays a drastic deterioration in the quality of the work, although the pace has picked up slightly. A contract was signed with the Indonesian company Tehate for the Liquica-Maliana-Suai-Cassa-Betano part of the grid, after negotiations with DCP fell through. Wärtsilä has begun work, and invited EDTL to send people to Finland and Italy in March to observe factory testing of the first three generator sets. The number of Timorese workers on the project has dropped to 331, along with 591 workers from China.

Here are a few quotes from the report:

"[EDTL] was disappointed during the visit made in Dili substation on January 20th to see the site in a state of neglect."
"with the present trend we believe that the Contractor is not able to meet the completion dates given to H.E. the Prime Minister."
"From Liquica substation up to Lospalos substation ... no substantial progress is visible. The number of towers in this north part of the Power Grid is 554, at the end of January a total of 249 towers were erected, but many of them have missing pieces, are incomplete and require additional time to make an overhaul."
"The situation which seemed had improved as far as the quantity of the work is concerned had been badly darkened and affected by the quality of the workmanship. A lot of reparation works are required and therefore towers can not be considered completed."
"The Contractor is invited once again to take action on the issue of the Timorese workers to be trained as tower erectors."
"The conductors strung in the section of 10 towers in Hera-Manatuto has been heavily damaged and must be dismantled and done it again."
The heavily deterioration of the quality of the workmanship in the transmission line, the tower erection and the stringing of the conductors are carried out in a manner which do not have a proper word to be described — ghastly — horrible, the photos produced as evidence of the quality of the work show that workers are not at all qualified rather they are common labourer. The Contractor is warned that all the towers with defects and conductors damaged will not be paid for till all adequate reparation is carried out. The Consultant had shown a lot of tolerance collaborating in order to have the work done fast, but there is a limit to be tolerant .... Those workers responsible of this situation are incompetent and should be sent back to China and replaced.
"Attending this meeting [two weeks later] are also the Leaders of all the Tower Erectors Teams (previously requested by the Consultant) to give them a strong warning that if they continue to produce such disgusting quality of the works all of them will be dismissed and sent back to China. The photos produced as evidence left them astonished. We hope that the lesson taught them something. The Contractor is warned for the last time that drastic measures will be adopted."
"Pollution and environmental problem. Once more the Contractor is reprimanded for the fact that in the weekly report it is mentioned that is taking good care of the situation, but in the reality it is a mess in every working place.
Yesterday the sea side and the beach in Dili were scattered with hundreds of pieces of red plastic sheets used to wrap up the steel structures bundles for protection during transportation, so it means that in Hera-Manatuto-Baucau all the waste are dumped in the sea and from there the current transported all these polluting waste up to Dili. Fisherman made a lot of complains for the fishing area polluted and all these plastic trapped in the fishing nets.
CNI22 does not make a good reputation of itself."
Two weeks later, CNI22 objected: "The Contractor considers the statement made by the Consultant exaggerated, but it is not because photos are there as evidence and fishermen can be questioned all the time."
"The Contractor in the weekly reports always states that is taking good care of the [environment] situation keeping all the places clean and under control, but in the reality it is not like that, nothing or very little is being done concerning the protection of the environment."
CNI22 and EB pointed fingers at each other about approval of drawings for transmission line materials, with EB calling CNI22's claim that EB is holding up purchasing by failing to sign off on drawings "totally groundless."
"The Consultant reminded once more that the quality of finishing works [at Dili substation] must be improved. ... In the 20Kv building the concrete floor done is not in accordance to the drawing and must be demolished and removed."
"Unprofessional handling of the materials during loading, unloading and transporting from the year to the site that causes minor to heavy damages of the materials."
"Coordination to local residents around the work sites is not properly handled."

The January report reiterates concerns in previous reports about worker safety, health, housing, pollution, littering, sanitary facilities, lack of required permits, and failure to report or monitor environmental issues. "To date, [CNI22] has yet to commence the implementation of the [March 2010] Environmental Management and Monitoring Plan."

The Government's oversight of the project is lackadaisical, with only a few EDTL representatives attending project meetings. Although "by instruction of the Prime Minister, no compensation should be paid for the land," several land disputes have been left to the companies to work out. CNI22 blames EDTL for delays in clearing material through the port and customs, although ELC/Bonifica says it is the forwarding agent's fault.

Nevertheless, $90 million of Timor-Leste's money was spent on this project during 2010, $447 million more is allocated for 2011, with more than $370 million to follow. The EDTL project manager pointed out that Timor-Leste's National Parliament, by enacting the 2011 state budget, has "announced officially that the project will be completed within the year 2011, is CNI22 in the position to guarantee this time schedule?"

IMF report discusses critical economic issues

2011-03-09T18:40:00.000+09:00

The IMF has just released its annual report on Timor-Leste's economy and financial management, dubbed the Staff Report for the 2010 Article IV Consultation. This year's edition is more than 70 pages long, and includes a Debt Sustainability Analysis co-authored with the World Bank.

The IMF reached different conclusions than the Government about a number of things in "the most oil-dependent economy in the world," including forecasts of non-oil GDP and advisable levels of public spending. They wrote that "Large uncertainties surround the medium-term outlook, including the path of oil prices and production, the magnitude and quality of public spending, and progress in business-enabling structural reforms." They observed that "spending at a slower-than-planned pace, consistent with the absorptive capacity of the economy, would stand a better chance of realizing high quality projects and crowding in private investment."

The report includes a statement conveying the Government's dissenting views.

As the IMF website can be difficult to access, La'o Hamutuk has copied the documents to our site. You can download the complete report (1.3 MB), which includes the following documents:

Staff Report for the Article IV Consultation
Informational Annex to the above Staff Report, on RDTL-IMF relations, World Bank-IMF Collaboration, relations with the Asian Development Bank, and statistical issues
Joint World Bank/IMF 2010 Debt Sustainability Analysis
IMF staff statement on new developments through 19 January 2011
Public Information Notice summarizing IMF Executive Board views on 28 January
Statement by IMF Executive Director for Timor-Leste, explaining where the Government disagrees with the IMF Article IV report

The IMF report relates to several important issues which La'o Hamutuk works on, including the 2011 State Budget, borrowing, the Strategic Development Plan and revising the Petroleum Fund Law. We will continue to analyze and publish about its observations and recommendations.

Corruption and the Resource Curse in Timor-Leste

2011-03-04T15:37:00.001+09:00

La'o Hamutuk was recently asked to give a presentation as part of the Strategic Planning for Timor-Leste's new Commission Against Corruption. Our Tetum-language presentation (also translated into English) focuses on lessons to be learned from other countries as well as the characteristics of oil-export-dependent economies that encourage corruption. We pointed out some signs of corruption which can be found in budget, documents and suggested that CAC form a legislative division to ensure that future laws can prevent, rather than allow, corruption.

La'o Hamutuk foin halo aprezentasaun ba planimentu estratejeiku Komisaun Kontra Korrupsaun (CAC) nian. Ami nia aprezentasaun iha lian Tetum (mos iha Ingles) inklui buat balu Timor-Leste bele aprende husi rai seluk, no mos karakteristika ekonomia depende makaas ba exportasaun mina rai, bele hamosu korrupsaun. Ami dehan katak dokumentu husi Orsamentu Estadu bele fo indikasaun ba korrupsaun, no mos sujere katak CAC bele kria divisaun legislativa ida atu garantia katak lei foun sira bele prevene, la'os fasilita, korrupsaun.

Click for information on the draft Anti-Corruption Law currently before Parliament.

LH Submission on draft Basic Environmental Law

2011-03-02T15:22:00.001+09:00

This a shortened version of a page on La'o Hamutuk's website.

In late January, Timor-Leste's Secretary of State for Environment (SEMA) circulated a draft basic Environmental Law for limited public consultation. On 28 February 2011, La'o Hamutuk made a 48-page, English-language submission on this draft law, in three parts:

The following is a summary of our submission, which was assisted by volunteer international experts.

A healthy environment is intrinsically valuable.

The general approach of this law appears to be that of resource users - seeing environmental components as something to be exploited for material gain, and the environment itself is a resource. A more proactive way would be to define a necessary quality of environment (including the intrinsic value of the environment and its components) and minimize damage, protect/conserve and strengthen natural systems to enable sustainable use.

Environmental involvement should be “mainstreamed.”

Protecting and preserving Timor-Leste’s environment is not the job of a single State Secretariat or Ministry, but should involve the active participation of people and institutions throughout the Government, as a corollary to the Principle of Participation. Just as “Gender Mainstreaming” makes everyone responsible to ensure that women have equal rights and opportunities, “Environmental Mainstreaming” would encourage everyone planning projects or making decisions for the state to consider environmental implications of their actions. Every policy, law or regulation should be written with an eye to how it can impact on or protect the environment.

Public consultations

We thank SEMA for holding this consultation relatively early, although two NGOs were the only ones asked for input on this highly complex, critically important law. We urge a thorough, informative, participative, transparent, linguistically-accessible and open-minded way public consultation in all districts and other rural communities.

International perspectives are increasingly seeing the environment as a human rights issue, including communities' right to exercise (or withhold) free, prior, informed consent to projects which could affect them.

Over the years, La’o Hamutuk has written more than 30 submissions. Many of these suggested ways to make public consultation more effective, including:

Advance distribution of materials in Tetum and/or Bahasa Indonesia as well as other languages, in electronic form (as well as on paper), and on the internet.
Allow at least one month, and more time for issues that will benefit from outside expertise.
Enlist local civil society organizations.
Report back to those who participated with a list of all suggestions received, what actions were taken in response, and why.

Timor-Leste’s Environmental Licensing Decree-Law came into force less than three weeks ago. It was enacted without any public consultation, even though its preamble says “public consultation is a fundamental right enshrined in the Constitution, and also an instrument of decision-making process, which allows integration of diverse views and perceptions of the project....” We hope that Article 11 ("Public Consultation") of this Decree-Law does not reflect SEMA’s view of a proper public consultation, as it is about socialization , rather than consultation. If we had been asked, we would have suggested adding that:

Decision-makers should use the consultation process as a source of information and perspectives to enable them to make better decisions.
Special efforts must be made to obtain wide participation from local communities which may be impacted, especially vulnerable and remote populations.
Stakeholders, civil society organizations, the public and especially local communities must be invited to participate.
Consultation must be completed, and its results incorporated, before laws are approved or projects are allowed to proceed.
The laws should be clear who is responsible for each step of this process.

Before enacting this Basic Environment Law, it would have better to develop a national environment policy through extensive public consultation. Without such a policy, the principles underlying this law (to the extent that they exist) do not represent broad-based Timorese wishes and desires.

Environmental Licensing Decree-Law

Had there been a public consultation on the Environmental Licensing Decree-Law, we would have pointed out other basic weaknesses, including these examples which are also relevant to the Basic Environment Law:

The sanctions are so small as to be meaningless for a large company – all they can lose is what they gained, so it’s a no-lose gamble to profitably destroy the environment.
There is no obligation or sanction on state agencies or officials for violating this law.
There is no provision allowing a potentially impacted community or person to ask a court to issue an injunction to delay or stop a project.
The Law fails to acknowledge the potential for significant environmental impacts from the cumulative effects of small individual activities.
The Evaluation Committee which recommends the requirements and issuance of a license should be independent and include representatives from several sectors.

Complementary legislation

The proposed Basic Law on Environment omits many details which will be in later regulations enacted in a closed process, including:

Sanctions for violations
Security deposit
Rules for use of renewable resources
Regulating marine and coastal activities
Mining, sand and gravel, and other nonrenewable resources
Pollution
Solid waste management
Hazardous waste
Environment Fund
Supervision and enforcement.

These laws should be enacted soon, as the passage of this Base Law for Environment creates a legal hodgepodge. This law could list the UNTAET and Indonesian laws which remain in force, providing more legal certainty. Nevertheless, we do not encourage hasty enactment of Timor-Leste’s environmental legal framework. The weaknesses of the Environmental Licensing Decree-Law demonstrate the dangers of bypassing public consultation and Parliamentary debate.

Climate Change

Although climate change caused by the emission of greenhouse gases affects most of our people, it has been omitted from this draft law. A separate law to implement our treaty obligations may be also appropriate.

Although our emissions are low or exported, this will change when heavy oil power generation starts, the PEDN is implemented, the Tasi Mane petroleum corridor is built, and an LNG plant for Greater Sunrise comes on-line. However, as a signatory to the UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol, Timor-Leste is committed to mitigation actions.

The people must act if the regulators fail to.

Even with environmental mainstreaming, there will be times when an destructive project has so much money or political backing that it may proceed in spite of violating this Law.

This can be made less likely with a mechanism where the courts can stop a project even if it has been licensed. Citizens who have been or will be affected by an activity should have standing to bring such a case to court, and judges should be empowered to issue temporary or permanent injunctions based on legal and scientific evidence, which can direct officials or project promoters to take certain actions or face criminal sanctions.

In addition to transparency already required by this law, the government should be required to give reasons for its decisions, demonstrating that they are consistent with the goals of the legislation.

Petroleum activities are more dangerous on shore than at sea.

Timor-Leste has been through several EIA processes for off-shore oil exploration. Although La’o Hamutuk participated in those processes, we were surprised to hear them cited as model processes. They are only good in comparison with the lack of assessment or consultation for virtually all other environmentally-sensitive projects, such as the heavy oil power plants.

Timor-Leste so far has experienced only a small taste of the petroleum industry, as all activities have been far out at sea. When onshore activities like the Tasi Mane project and the onshore LNG plant begin, the impact on human life, local communities and people’s livelihoods, as well as on complex land and coastal ecosystems, will be much greater.

Petroleum regulation here has been complicated by overlapping jurisdictions between DNMA, ANP and SERN, and by pressures to maximize short-term state revenues and company profits from petroleum activities.

La’o Hamutuk's 2008 report Sunrise LNG in Timor-Leste: Dreams, Realities and Challenges contains many environmental observations and recommendations, including:

An LNG Project could double Timor-Leste’s carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere and will generate significant amounts of polluting materials, such as hydrogen sulfide, oils, garbage, sanitary water, and other waste. Timor-Leste currently has insufficient laws or capacity to regulate, monitor and control waste generation and pollution of this scale, and many important steps need to be taken:
The Government should revise the Law on Environmental Impact Assessment. An EIA should include a detailed Environment Management Plan. The EIA process should include informed local consultation and consent.
A Pollution Control Law should specify limits to pollutants, including CO2 and other greenhouse gases, chemicals which affect sea, ground water and soil quality, as well as issues like flaring and noise pollution.
A base law on the environment, incorporating pollution control and environmental impact assessment laws should also define conditions for decommissioning.
Each law developed should include sanctions and/or penalties which are severe enough to compel compliance. Contractual agreements should stipulate that the operating companies obey these laws.

Conclusion

This draft law presumes that sanctions will deter destructive practices and encouraging those which protect the environment. However, has no strategic overview of the system, and focuses on monitoring environmental damage after the event and finding out who should pay compensation. In the real world, the penalty often is cheaper than the value of the environmental degradation, or in many cases the pollute’ cannot be held to account.

Issues raised in the article-by-article part of our submission:

Stronger and more specific wording, with loopholes or qualifications removed and implementation responsibility clarified.
More attention to spiritual and cultural benefits from the environment and environmental services, rather than just economic benefits.
Define "Ecosystem Services" (services provided by ecosystems including water purification, pollination, erosion control, soil formation and nutrient recycling), "Endangered Species," and "Vulnerable Groups" (women, the elderly, youth, poor, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, the disabled and displaced persons, as well as subsistence farmers and fishers).
Strengthen references to international treaties, including advocacy in international fora for reduced carbon emissions and other environmental policies.
Prioritize scientific expertise and evaluation in making decisions, to balance political and commercial pressures.
Improve the quality, quantity, accuracy, and completeness of information distributed to the public, as well as transparency and reporting back regarding environmental monitoring.
Develop how the state will recognize and promote Tara Bandu.
Include lian nain and other traditional leaders in informing and representing their communities.
Increase fines and penalties to deter violations.
Improve coordination with land and planning related processes and legislation.
Add Environmental Quality Standards on biodiversity and cultural resources .
WHO standards are inadequate in the interim.
Include freshwater and riparian ecosystems as renewable resources.
Recognize that air and soil may not be renewable in human time-scales.
Give more attention to dams, storm water runoff, waste disposal and activities at sea.
Ban the importation of genetically modified organisms.
Clarify confusion in institutional jurisdictions for extractive industries.
Be more careful about exempting small-scale or household extractive use.
Clarify environmental rules for sand and gravel extraction, and don't exempt beaches.
Include concerns about negative impacts of some alternative energy.
Use a broader concept of visual pollution.
Remove support for carbon and emissions trading.
Establish a governmental environment policy for procurement and construction.
Clarify how compensation and benefits will be distributed to communities.
Ensure that citizens can act if state agencies fail to perform their duties.

Ezekuta no Aloka Orsamentu Estado TL nian

2011-02-26T18:04:00.000+09:00

Versaun naruk liu artigu ida ne'e iha website La'o Hamutuk nian (also English) no mos iha Tempo Semanal.

Orsamentu Estadu 2011 nian, fo autorization ba Governu atu gasta osan ho total biliaun $1.3 iha tinan ida ne'e. Ne'ebe boot liu dala rua kompara ho orsamentu original iha 2010. Fasil atu hamosu konfuzu ho numeru boot no politika partidaria, nune'e duni grafiku rua atu ajuda le'e nain sira hodi komprende saida mak orsamentu ne'e rasik hateten.

Grafiku sira ne'e, inklui informasaun kona-ba ezekusaun orsamental husi kada Ministeriu, durante 2010, maske ami hanoin katak funsaun prinsipal Governu nian laos atu gasta osan deit. Ministru ida bele atinzi ezekusaun 100% se nia nauk ka fakar hotu nia dotasaun. Maibe povo ne'ebe ne'e presiza rezultadu husi Ministeriu sira nia servisu sei nafatin labele hetan sira nia benefisiu. Maibe, numeru sira iha orsamentu la fo informasaun klaru kona-ba servisu lolos ne'ebe halo tiha ona husi orgaun estadu nian no oinsa orgaun nia servisu ne'e bele hataan ba povo nia nesesidade no nia hakarak. Povo bele hare ida ne'e ho sira nia matan rasik.

Notas (Hili grafiku atu hare'e boot liu)
1. "Governu tomak" inklui kombustivel ba EDTL no "fundu kontijensi" iha Primeiru Ministru.
2. "Seluk" inklui orgaun tomak no Ministeriu sira ne'ebe aloka osan menus tokon $5 iha 2010.

Grafika hatudu sai, montante osan ne'ebe aloka ba funsionamentu iha kada Ministeriu iha orsamentu rektifikativu 2010. Kategoria iha parte liman karuk ne'e mak refere kada orgaun. Iha parte liman los hatudu lala'ok atividade ne'ebe boot, inklui transferensia publiku husi Ministeriu Solidaridade Sosial (MSS), komponente boot husi orsamentu Defeza no Seguransa no orsamentu Infraestrutura, seguransa aihan (importasaun fos), PDD, no projeitu eletrisidade oleo pezadu. Barra husi projeitu oleo pezadu no Infraestrutura nian boot teb-tebes kompara ho kategoria sira seluk ne'ebe hare ba kiik, maibe kada kategoria ne'e gasta liu tokon $5.

Kada kategoria, iha barra rua: barra iha liman karuk mak 2010 no barra iha liman los mak 2011. Kor sira iha barra liman karuk nian hatudu ezekusaun orsamentu 2010. Parte ida ho kor mean ne'e hatudu osan hira mak lolos gasta ona, kor matak ne'e indika obrigasaun (servisu ne'ebe seidauk halao ka seidauk halo pagamentu), no kor mutin ne'e indika osan sira ne'ebe iha ona dotasaun maibe la uza.

Barra iha liman los hatudu orsamentu 2011, no kor sira hatudu osan sira ne'e mai husi parte orsamentu ida ne'e. Parte ho kor azul ho linha vertikal ne'e mak Fundu Konsolidadu ho montante tokon $682, . No parte rua seluk mak Fundu Espesial foun. Kor coklat ho linha diagonal reprezenta Fundu Infraestrutura ho montante tokon $599 no kor kinur indika Fundu Dezenvolvimentu Kapital Humanu. Maske Ministeriu sira la kontrola Fundu Espesial (maibe Ministru/a Finansa bele muda alokasaun sira ne'e husi tinan ida ba tinan seluk ka husi projeitu ida ba projeitu seluk), dadauk ne'e sira aloka osan ba seitor balun ministeriu ruma nian. Ami tau gastu husi Fundu Espesial hamutuk ho ministeriu relevante, atu hatudu alokasaun ba funsaun. Alokasaun boot husi Fundu Infraestrutura nian maka tokon $477 ba projeitu eletrifikasaun nasional (hatudu ho Ministeriu Infraestrutura), tokon $45 ba programa "MDG-Suco" (Objetivu Dezenvolvimentu Milenium nian ba Suco) atu harii uma ba komunidade lokal (hatudu ho MSS), tokon $19 ba halo estudu kona-ba projeitu Tasi-Mane (hatudu ho SERN), no tokon $8 ba programa komputador FreeBalance (hatudu ho Ministeriu Finansa).

Grafika ida ne'e hatudu oinsa povu nia osan ne'e gasta iha tinan kotuk no oinsa atu gasta iha tinan ida ne'e. Ida ne'e klaru katak investimentu iha kapital humanu no kapital produtivu lokal nian, hanesan edukasaun, saude no agrikultura, hetan osan menus duke infraestrutura fiziku no subsidiu sira.

Notas
1. Ami laiha dadus ba ezekusaun orsamental ba funsaun sira too 12 Novembru ne'ebe hatudu iha liman los, tamba ne'e ami estimatiza katak rasio entre parte primeiru no segundu husi trimetre ikus nian hanesan iha ministeriu ne'ebe relevante.
2. Barra hirak ne’ebe besik liu ba sorin karuk ne’e hatudu valor konstanta husi gastu ninian. Sa ida maka sei mosu wainhira orgaun do Estadu ida ezekuta tomak ninia orsamentu, no gasta nominal osan hanesan iha kada semana, durante tinan ida nia laran.

Grafika hatudu wainhira kada orgaun gasta nia osan durante 2010, nudar persentajen ida husi sira nia total dotasaun orsamental. Kada barra reprezenta total montante ne'ebe gasta durante tinan ida; karik sira gasta ona alokasaun tomak, hatudu iha grafiku ne'e bele to 100%. Barra mutin iha okos liu hatudu gastus durante trimestre primeiru (Janeiru too Marsu), barra ho kor kinur ne'e indika gastus durante fulan tolu oin mai, no kor laranja salpikadu (titik-titik) indika gastus durante trimestre terseiru. Tamba osan barak mak gasta iha fin do ano, ami fahe trimestre ikus nian ba metade: parte ho linhas diagonal ne'e indika gastus ne'ebe hahu husi 1 Outubru to 12 Novembru, no ho kor mean los ne'e indika gastus hahu 13 Novembru to fin do ano 2010. Linha matak iha barra liman los hatudu (skala liman los nian husi 1-12 hatudu gasta lalais husi orgaun depois 12 Novembru to fin do ano kompara ho gastus iha ne'ebe sira halo iha 2010 molok 12 Novembru.

Grafika ida ne'e bazeia ba dadus husi Ministeriu Finansa. Ami iha duvida katak ministeriu balun bele gasta osan povo nian dala lima lalais liu durante loron Independensia no loron Natal kompara ho gastus ne'ebe sira halo entre Janeiru no Novembru, maibe ami husik ida ne'e ba sira seluk atu deside karik nia rezultadu bele diak, ka numeru sira ne'e mak sala, ka osan ne'e ita fakar deit, ka iha indikasaun korrupsaun.

Executing and allocating Timor-Leste's Budget

2011-02-26T16:43:00.000+09:00

A longer version of this article is on La'o Hamutuk's website (also Tetum). It is also in Tempo Semanal this week.

The 2011 State Budget authorizes the Government to spend $1.3 billion dollars this year, twice as much as the original 2010 budget. Since the big numbers and politics, can be confusing, we have prepared two graphs to help explain what the budget contains.

These graphs include information about budget execution of each Ministry during 2010, although we believe that spending money is not the purpose of government. A Minister could steal or waste his or her entire appropriation and achieve 100% execution – but the people who require the services the Ministry is intended to provide would be in trouble. However, budget numbers don’t show the work done (or not done) by state agencies and whether that work satisfied people’s needs – people can see that with their own eyes.

Notes for this graph, which you can click on to see larger:
1. “Whole of Govt” includes fuel for EDTL and the Prime Minister’s “contingency fund.
2. “Other” includes all organs and ministries which were allocated less than $5 million in 2010.

The graph shows the amount of money allocated to the functions of each Ministry in the final 2010 and 2011 budgets. The categories on the left portion are state organs, while the right part shows large sub-categories. The heavy oil and infrastructure bars are so large that the other categories look small, but each one spent more than $5 million.

The colors in the left bar for each organ show the execution of the 2010 budget. The red part is how much money was actually spent, green is obligations, and white was appropriated but not used.

The right bar shows the 2011 budget, and the colors show which part of the budget the money comes from. The vertically striped blue part is the $682 million Consolidated Fund. The other two colors are the new Special Funds: brown diagonal stripes represent the $599 million Infrastructure Fund, and yellow is the $25 million Human Capital Development Fund. These Special Funds are not managed by individual ministries, and the Minister of Finance can shift their allocations from one year or project to another. They are initially allocated to projects within the competence of particular ministries, and we show them that way. The largest allocations from the Infrastructure Fund are $447m for the national electricity project (shown with the Ministry of Infrastructure), $45m for the “MDG-suco” program to build local community housing (shown with MSS), $19m for studies related to the Tasi Mane project (shown with SERN), and $8m for the FreeBalance software program (shown with the Ministry of Finance).

This shows how public money was spent in 2010 and how it will be spent this year, and illustrates where public resources will go. It is clear that investment in human and local productive capital – education, health and agriculture, gets much less money than physical infrastructure and subsidies.

Notes for this graph
1. We do not have budget execution data as of 12 November for the functions on the right, so we have assumed the ratio between the first and second parts of the last trimester is the same as for the relevant ministry.
2. The left-most bar shows a constant rate of spending – if a state organ executed its entire budget, spending the same amount every week of the year.

The second graph shows when each ministry or function spent its money during 2010, as a percentage of their total appropriation. Each bar represents the total amount spent during the year; if they had spent the entire allocation , it would be 100%. The white lowest part of the bar bar shows spending during the first trimester (January to March), the yellow bar during the next three, and the speckled orange bar during the third trimester. Since a lot of money is spent at the end of the year, we have divided the last trimester in half: The diagonally striped part is from 1 October to 12 November, and the solid dark red is from 15 November through the end of 2010.

The green line to the right of each bar shows (on the right-hand scale) how many times faster each agency spent money during the last six weeks of 2010 than they did during the rest of the year.

This graph is based on data from the Ministry of Finance. We find it hard to believe that some ministries could spend the people’s money during Independence Day and Christmas more than five times faster than they did between January and mid-November, but we leave it to you to decide if the outcomes are good, the numbers are wrong, or the money was wasted.

Help La'o Hamutuk analyze draft Environmental Law

2011-02-16T00:22:00.004+09:00

In late January, Timor-Leste's Secretary of State for Environment circulated a Portuguese-language draft of a basic Environmental Law (also PDF) for limited public consultation, with the letter at right. The Secretary accepted La'o Hamutuk's request to extend the comment period until the end of February.

La'o Hamutuk did a preliminary computer-assisted translation of the draft law into English (also PDF), and we are asking people and organizations to make your own submissions or to email us with ideas, suggested changes or other analysis which will help us write ours.

Update, 2 March 2011:

On 28 February, La'o Hamutuk submitted 50 pages of analysis and recommendations on this law to the State Secretariat for Environment, in three parts:

Click for a summary of the submission or a longer (but still abridged) version.

President sends 2011 budget to court, as LH suggested

2011-02-14T23:29:00.001+09:00

Last Friday, La'o Hamutuk wrote a letter to President Jose Ramos-Horta (Tetum original) urging him not to promulgate the $1.3 billion 2011 State Budget that Parliament passed at the end of January.

On 7 February, the President asked the Court of Appeals to review the legality and constitutionality of this law, which is a 98% increase over the original 2010 State Budget. We have translated and posted the President's request and the Court's letter to Parliament on our website, which also links to Portuguese originals and other relevant documents. The Court must decide by 17 February; we hope it will wisely advise the President to return the Budget Law to Government and Parliament for redrafting.

The main points in La'o Hamutuk's letter are:

Unsustainable spending threatens the goals of the Petroleum Fund Law.

Timor-Leste will spend $1,306 million dollars under this budget, including $1,055 million transferred from the Petroleum Fund during 2011 and $141 million carried over from unspent appropriations in the 2010 Budget, which also comes from the Petroleum Fund. This increase is not justifiable, especially since recent exploratory oil wells were dry.

The Infrastructure Fund is a bad precedent.

Nearly half of this year’s budget is for the Infrastructure Fund and the Human
Capital Development Fund. The Government says it is establishing these Special Funds
according to the 2009 Budget and Financial Management Law, but this interpretation of that law undercuts the Constitutional powers of Parliament "To deliberate on the State Plan and Budget and the execution report thereof" and "To monitor the execution of the State budget.” We also believe it is too soon to allocate funding to execute the National Strategic Development Plan (PEDN), which Parliament has never seen.

The Heavy Oil Electricity Project could be a black hole.

This Budget allocates $448 million for heavy oil power plants and transmission lines, but the Government has not provided enough information. For years, the project has been plagued by misguided concepts, lack of planning, irregular procurement, unreliable contractors, unmet promises, environmental negligence and pervasive secrecy. Timor-Leste has already spent more than $100 million on this project, and before spending a half-billion dollars more, we encourage the President to examine it carefully.

The oil price predictions are not prudent.

In the 2011 State Budget, the Government assumed future oil prices 50% higher than they assumed last year. This violates the Petroleum Fund Law that “All assumptions made shall be prudent, reflect international best practice and be based upon internationally recognized standards.” Policies based on wishes rather than prudence could squander the nonrenewable resource birthright of our children.

Please exorcise the “Resource Curse.”

The level of spending in the 2011 budget brings Timor-Leste into the “resource curse” and threatens our future financial stability. The State institutions funded by this budget should ensure that the people’s resources are used for the people’s benefit – not for narrow election objectives.
Therefore, we believe that you, as “the Head of State and the symbol and guarantor of national independence and unity of the State and of the smooth functioning of democratic institutions,” as described in our Constitution, should use your powers to rescue our State from economic instability and future poverty, as financial insecurity also threatens our national independence and unity.

The President asked the Court for advice on three questions:

Is creating the Special Funds via the Budget Law, rather than with a separate specific law, permissible under Constitution Article 145.2?
Does creating the Special Funds without specifying detailed expenditures to be paid from these funds violate the transparency requirement specified in Constitution Article 145.2?
Does transferring $321 million more than the Estimated Sustainable Income without a detailed explanation of why this is in the long-term interests of Timor-Leste violate Article 9 of the Petroleum Fund Law, which has superior force?

The Court ruled five days later.

On the evening of 11 February, the Court of Appeals issued a 55-page opinion (also Portuguese). After soliciting and summarizing the views of President Jose Ramos-Horta, National Parliament President Fernando LaSama Araujo and Prosecutor-General Ana Pessoa Pinto, the three judges Claudio de Jesus Ximenes, José Luís da Goia and José Manuel Barata Penha cited extensive scholarly research and previous cases, concluding

"For these reasons, the judges of the Court of Appeal have deliberated that the Decree of the National Parliament No 45/II approving the 2011 State budget submitted to the President of the Republic does not violate Articles 145.2 and 115 of the Constitution, nor Article 9 of Law 9/2005 of 3 August (on the Petroleum Fund)."

The President promulgated the budget the following day, before leaving for a week in Israel and Palestine. La'o Hamutuk believes that even if the budget is legal and constitutional, that doesn't make it good policy.

Presiza atu Respeita Prinsipiu Konstitusional ba Knar Prezidente Republika

2011-02-11T16:02:00.000+09:00

Husi: Juvinal Dias, Staf NGO La’o Hamutuk. Publika ona iha Timor Post no Diario Nasional, 11 Fevereiru 2011

Iha 15 Novembru 2010, Governu aprezenta proposta Orsamentu Jeral Estadu 2011 nian ba Parlamentu Nasional, hafoin Governu adia kalendariu nian ba fulan ida. Proposta ne’e hakarak atu gasta tokon $985, ho tokon $734 husi Fundu Petroleu.

Ba orsamentu ida ne’e, Governu halo kalkulasaun Rendimentu Sustentavel Estimadu RSE/ESI 3% husi rekursu naturais inklui Fundu Petroleu iha tokon $734, ne’ebe signifika katak, tuir proposta OJE 2011, Governu iha intensaun atu tuir nivel Rendimentu Sustentavel Estimadu.

Maibe, iha loron 28 Janeiru 2011, Parlamentu Nasional aprova tiha ona orsamentu Jeral Estadu 2011 ho montante biliaun $1,306. Husi montante ne’e, Governu sei foti osan biliaun $1,055 husi Fundu Petroleu, no tokon $141 husi osan restu ne’ebe la konsege gasta iha tinan orsamental 2010, no tokon $110 husi Reseitas Domestiku.

Alterasaun orsamentu ne’e akontese bainhira Parlamentu Nasional hakarak atu aumenta tan osan tokon $321 husi Fundo Petroleu. Husi montante ne’e, tokon $282 ba sentral eletrika oleu pezadu. Dadaun ne’e, OJE 2011 ne’e hein hela Prezidente Republika nia promulgasaun.

Tamba sa Prezidente Republika husu Tribunal Rekursu nia hanoin?

Timor-Leste nudar nasaun de Direitu Demokratiku, ne’ebe sidadaun hotu-hotu inklui Prezidente Republika, Governu, Parlamentu no Tribunal tenke respeita no kumpri lei, respeita separasaun de poderes no kompetensia ida-idak nian. Konstituisaun RDTL Artigu 69 hateten “Órgaun soberania sira, iha sira-nia relasaun ba-malu no wainhira hala’o knaar, tenke tuir prinsípiu separasaun no interdependénsia kbiit nian ne’ebé iha Lei-Inan nia laran”. Orgaun hotu-hotu tenke konsidera katak interese nasional tempu naruk ba Timor-Leste nian mak respeita ba Konstituisaun RDTL no lei sira ne’ebe iha. Lei laos politika, lei nudar obrigasaun ba estadu de Direitu-Demokratiku.

Prezidente Republika DR. José Ramos Horta haruka tiha pedidu ba Tribunal Rekursu iha loron 7 fulan Fevereiru 2011 hodi husu apresiasaun preventiva molok halo promulgasaun ba Orsamentu Jeral Estadu (OJE 2011). Semana ne’e nia laran iha publikasaun barak husi jornal sira iha Timor-Leste, notisia barak husi sira mak la los.

Ita hotu presiza atu iha komprendesaun ba knar no kompetensia Prezidente Republika nian hanesan hateten iha Konstituisaun RDTL Artigu 85(e) katak “Husu Tribunál Supremu Justisa nian kona-ba apresiasaun preventiva no ba fiskalizasaun abstratu konstitusionalidade norma sira-nian, no mós haree inkonstitusionalidade tan omisaun;”

Prezidente Republika presiza hetan esplikasaun ida ne’ebe legal no klean kona-ba razaun fundamental ba Konstitusionalidade, Legalidade Orsamentu Estadu nian molok halo promulgasaun ka uza nia direitu veto, hanesan Konstituisaun RDTL Artigu 88.1 hateten “Iha prazu loron tolunulu nia laran, hahú hosi simu diploma naran ida husi Parlamentu Nasionál atu promulga hanesan lei, Prezidente-Repúblika bele promulga ka uza direitu veto nian, hodi husu apresiasaun foun kona-ba lia-tatoli ne’e ho fundamentu;”

Bainhira Prezidente hetan tiha ona apresiasaun preventiva husi Tribunal Rekursu, entaun Prezidente bele halo promulgasaun bazeia ba norma Konstitusional nian ba Orsamentu estadu nian hodi implementa, ka Prezidente bele uza nia Direitu Veto ba Orsamentu ne’e bainhira nia hetan konseilu katak iha ilegalidade ruma no hodi fo fila ba Parlamentu halo esbosu foun tan.

Tamba ne’e, bainhira Prezidente uza nia knar ida ne’e, la signifika katak Prezidente Republika halo akuzasaun no halo sensasaun politika (iha Jornal Diario, 9 no 10 Fevereiru 2011), maibe Prezidente Republika halao nia responsabilidade Konstitusional atu bele garante independensia no stabilidade ekonomia no mos justisa ekonomia iha futuru hanesan Konstituisaun RDTL, Artigu 74.1, Prezidente nudar “Xefe-Estadu, símbulu no garantia independénsia nasionál no unidade Estadu nian, no instituisaun demokrátika sira-nia funsionamentu regular”.

Saida mak akontese iha Orsamentu Jeral Estadu 2011 nia laran?

Iha tinan ida ne’e, foin primeira-vez Timor-Leste iha Fundo Spesial (Fundu Infraestrutura no Fundu Dezenvolvimentu Kapital Humanu) tokon $599 mak aloka ba fundus rua ne’e. Fundus ida ne’e sei jere husi Ajensia Dezenvolvimentu Nasional (ADN).

Kriasaun Fundu Spesial rua ne’e Governu halo bazeia ba Lei Orsamentu no Jestaun Finanseiru No.13/2009 Artigu 32 ne’ebe esplika, katak "Ministru/a Finansa bele estabelese fundu special ne’ebe sei la hola parte iha Fundo Konsolidadu, bainhira autoriza husi lei” no mos Ministru/a Finansa mak sei iha responsabilidade kona-ba nia jestaun no kontrolu nian, bazeia ba lei ida ne’e, inklui mos bele muda osan sira ne’ebe sira aloka tiha ona ba buat seluk ka tinan oin mai naran katak informa ba Parlamentu.

Maibe Konstituisaun RDTL Artigu 145.2 hateten katak “Lei Orsamentu nian tenke prevé, ho baze iha efisiénsia no efikásia, diskriminasaun reseita no despeza nian, no mós, sees husi dotasaun no fundu sekretu sira”.

Husi ami nia pontu de vista, katak interpretasaun Governu nian ba Lei Orsamentu no Jestaun Finanseiru ida ne’e kua tiha ona autoridade Konstitusional Parlamentu Nasional nian hanesan hateten iha Konstituisaun RDTL Artigu 95.3(d no e) katak Parlamentu Nasional iha mos kompetensia atu halo (d) “Delibera kona-ba Planu no Orsamentu Estadu nian no mós relatóriu kona-ba orsamentu ne’e;” no (e) “Fiskaliza oinsá Estadu hala’o orsamentu nasionál;”

Maske Parlamentu rasik mak aprova lei Orsamentu no Jestaun Finanseiru ne’e rasik iha tinan 2009, maibe interpretasaun ida ne’e kria ona presedente at ba futuru Timor-Leste nian, maibe Parlamentu labele abandona sira nia responsabilidade Konstitusional ne’ebe iha.
Tamba ne’e interpretasaun ba lei Orsamentu no Jestaun Finanseiru ne’e ba Fundus Spesial husi Tribunal Rekursu importante teb-tebes atu nune’e bele ajuda Prezidente Republika hodi foti desizaun ida ne’ebe matenek no prudente hodi garantia efisiensia, efikasia no ses husi fundu sekretu.

Aleinde ne’e, foti osan liu Rendimentu Sustentavel Estimadu (ESI/RSE 3%) ne’e bele ilegal, tamba Governu seidauk fo esplikasaun ida ne’ebe deitalhadu tuir rekizitu Artigu 9(d) Lei Fundu Petroleu “Esplika ho deitalhadu kona-ba motivos saida mak lori sira hodi konsidera atu foti osan sira ne’e ba Timor-Leste nia interese tempu naruk ne’ebe sei afeita husi transferensia montante osan ne’ebe liu Rendiementu Sustentavel Estimado.”

Maibe ita hotu hatene katak Governu rasik la husu atu gasta liu Rendimentu Sustentavel Estimadu (RSE), maibe Parlamentu rasik mak aumenta atu foti liu ESI/RSE ne’e, tamba presiza duni iha konseilu husi Tribunal ba prosesu ida ne’e, hanesan Prezidente Republika husu ona Tribunal Rekursu nia opiniaun.

Tamba ne’e, karik Tribunal deside katak foti liu ESI/RSE ne’e ilegal, entaun tenke kansela projeitu eletrisidade oleo pezado, no karik atu kontinua projeitu ne’e, Governu tenke foti osan liu ESI/RSE husi Fundu Petroleu.

Maibe dadauk ne’e, Governu halo tiha ona kontratu ho kompania husi Indonesia hanesan Puri Akraya Engineering Limited atu halo konstrusaun ba sentral eletrika nian. Tuir ELC/Bonifica, kompania ne’ebe Timor-Leste kontratu atu halo supervizaun no studu ambiental nian, nia Relatoriu Progresu Fulan Outubru nian, Timor-Leste iha obrigasaun ba tempu pagamentu tokon $380 (ne’ebé la inklui tokon $2 ne’ebé selu ba ELC/Bonifica tinan tinan). Karik Tribunal deside foti liu ESI/RSE ne’e illegal, Timor-Leste iha deit tokon $164 ba eletrisidade.

Saida mak Prezidente Republika husu ba Tribunal Rekursu?

Karta ne’ebe Prezidente Republika haruka ba Tribunal Rekursu ne’e husu pergunta importante tolu, mak hanesan tuir mai ne’e:

Kriasaun Fundu Spesial rua ho Lei Orsamentu, duke lei spesifiku ne’e, viola Konstituisaun RDTL Artigu 145.2 ka la’e?
Kriasaun Fundu Spesial rua ne’ebe laiha detailhu kona ba gastus husi fundus rua ne’e, viola rekeramentu ba transparensia iha Konstituisaun Artigu 145.2 ka la’e?
Atu transfere tokon $321 liu Rendimentu Estimado Sustantavel (ESI/RSE 3%) bainhira laiha explikasaun detailhadu tanba sa transferensia ida ne’e ba iha interese Timor-Leste nian ba tempu naruk viola Artigu 9 Lei Fundo Petroleu ka la’e?

Saida mak sei akontese bainhira Prezidente seidauk promulga?

Bainhira Prezidente seidauk promulga OJE 2011, sistema orsamental Timor-Leste bele aplika Rejime Duodesimal hanesan Artigu 31, Lei Orsamentu no Jestaun Finanseiru nian hateten. Bainhira Orsamentu Jeral Estadu nian la promulga iha loron hahu tinan fiskal ida, Governu bele iha esforsu atu halo dotasaun orsamentu temporariu nian hodi kontinua nia aktividade. Bainhira halo orsamentu temporariu nian Governu bele la'o ho orsamental sei la liu Um doze avos (1/12) husi alokasaun orsamental tinan kotuk kada fulan.

No mos bainhira Prezidente halo tiha ona promulgasaun hafoin hetan apresiasaun husi Tribunal rekursu entaun alokasaun orsamentu temporariu ne’ebe halo bazeia ba Artigu 31 ne’e sei hotu ho Orsamentu legal foun ne’ebe vigora ona, no mos gastus tomak relasiona ho orsamentu temporariu nian sei hatama hotu ba Orsamentu Jeral Estadu ne’ebe atu kontinua implementa ba.

Entaun sei laiha krize ekonomia ka krize finanseiru, no sei la fo risku ba servisu Governu nian, hanesan servisu saude no mos infraestrutura balun iha Timor-Leste, hanesan politikus nain no sosiedade sivilbalun preokupa ba.

Aleinde ne’e, ita-hotu tenke hatene katak Governu rasik mak adia sira nia prosesu atu hatama Orsamentu ba Parlamentu ba fulan ida ho aprovasaun husi Parlamentu rasik. Tamba ne’e, Parlamentu Nasional no Governu mos labele prevene Prezidente Republika atu halao nia knar Konstitusional nian.

Ikus liu, ami espera katak artigu ida ne’e bele ajuda povo, sosiedade sivil (NGO), jornalista no mos nai-ulun sira atu bele komprende sobre knar Konstitusionalidade Prezidente Republika nian relasiona ho pedidu Prezidente Republika nian ba Tribunal Rekursu, atu nune’e iha informasaun ne’ebe edukativu ba ita nia sosiedade no mos ita nia povo tomak. Obrigado barak.

Respect the Constitutional Principles of the President’s Duties

2011-02-11T15:20:00.000+09:00

During this past week, Timorese journalists and politicians have issued many uninformed pronouncements on President Jose Ramos-Horta asking the Court of Appeals for advice before he promulgates the 2011 State Budget. Dili is rife with allegations that this is a political action or personal challenge, will create a crisis, and/or blocks the Government from functioning.

We believe that it is essential for the rule of law to apply in Timor-Leste, so Juvinal Dias of La'o Hamutuk wrote an article (Tetum original, English translation) which was published today in Timor Post and Diario Nacional. The following is a shortened version of the translation:

We Must Respect the Constitutional Principles of the President’s Duties

On 15 November 2010, the Government presented a Budget proposal to Parliament to spend $985 million, of which $734 million would come from the Petroleum Fund. The Government Estimated the Sustainable Income (ESI) at $734 million, so the 2011 budget would be within it.

However, on 28 January 2011, Parliament approved a Budget of $1,306 million, including $1,055 million from the Petroleum Fund, $141 million from the unspent balance from 2010, and $110 million from domestic revenues. Parliament amended the budget to spend $321 million more from the Petroleum Fund, of which $282 million is for the heavy oil electricity project. At this point, the Budget is pending promulgation by the President of the Republic.

Why did the President ask the Court of Appeals for advice?

Timor-Leste is a democratic nation under rule of law, and every citizen – including the President of the Republic, Government, Parliament and Courts – must respect the laws, the separation of powers and the mandate of each organ. Each organ should consider that Timor-Leste’s long-term national interest is in respecting our laws and Constitution. The law is not partisan politics; the law is an obligation for a democratic state.

President José Ramos-Horta sent a petition to the Court of Appeals on 7 February , asking for preventive appraisal before he promulgates the State Budget.

We need to understand the power the Constitution gives the President “To request the Supreme Court of Justice to undertake preventive appraisal and abstract review of the constitutionality of the rules, as well as verification of unconstitutionality by omission.”

The President needs a thorough, legal analysis before he promulgates or vetoes the Budget, as explained in the Constitution: “Within thirty days after receiving any statute from the National Parliament for the purpose of its promulgation as law, the President of the Republic shall either promulgate the statute or exercise the right of veto...”

Therefore, when the President uses his powers, it doesn’t mean that he is making accusations or creating a political sensation, but that the President is carrying out his Constitutional responsibilities as “the Head of State and the symbol and guarantor of national independence and unity of the State and of the smooth functioning of democratic institutions.”

What is happening in the 2011 State Budget?

This year Timor-Leste is creating two Special Funds (Infrastructure Fund and Human Capital Development Fund) with $599 million. The Government bases these funds on the 2009 Budget and Financial Management Law, which says “Whenever authorized by law, the Minister of Finance may establish special funds that are not part of the Consolidated Fund.” The Minister of Finance is responsible for managing the funds, whose expenditures can be shifted from one allocation or year to another as long as Parliament is informed.

However, the Constitution states that “The Budget law shall provide, based on efficiency and effectiveness, a breakdown of the revenues and expenditures of the State, as well as preclude the existence of secret appropriations and funds.”

From our point of view, the Government’s interpretation of the Budget and Financial Management Law undercuts the Constitutional requirement that Parliament “deliberate on the State Plan and Budget and the execution report thereof” and “monitor the execution of the State budget.” Even though Parliament itself approved the Budget and Financial Law, Parliament cannot abandon its Constitutional responsibilities.

Because of this controversial use of the Budget and Financial Management Law, it is very important for the President to make a wise decision to avoid secret budgets.

In addition, taking more money than the ESI from the Petroleum Fund may be illegal, because the Government has not met the requirement of the Petroleum Fund Law to provide: “a detailed explanation of why it is in the long-term interests of Timor-Leste to transfer from the Petroleum Fund an amount in excess of the Estimated Sustainable Income.” Since the Government itself did not ask to spend more than the ESI (Parliament added this amount to the budget), so we need the Court’s analysis. If the Court decides that taking more than the ESI is illegal, Timor-Leste could cancel the heavy oil electricity project, or if the project is to be continued, the Government must take more than the ESI from the Petroleum Fund.

The Government is contractually obligated to pay more than $380 million during 2011 for the electricity project. If the Court decides spending more than the ESI is illegal, the budget allocates only $163.7 million for this year.

What is the President asking the Court?

The letter the President sent to the Court asked three important questions:
1.    Is creating the Special Funds via the Budget Law, rather than with a separate specific law, permissible under Constitution Article 145.2?
2.    Does creating the Special Funds without specifying their detailed expenditures violate the transparency requirement of Constitution Article 145.2?
3.    Does transferring $321 million more than the ESI without a detailed explanation violate Article 9 of the Petroleum Fund Law, which has superior force?

What will happen when the President hasn’t yet promulgated the budget?

Until the President promulgates the 2011 State Budget, Timor-Leste can apply the Duodecimal Regime defined in the Budget and Financial Management Law. The Government can make temporary budget appropriations to continue its activities. Under this regime, the Government can spend up to 1/12 of the budget allocation from the previous year each month.

Therefore, there will not be an economic or financial crisis, or a risk of interrupting Government services, as politicians and commentators are worried about.

In addition, we should remember that the Government itself (with Parliamentary agreement) delayed submitting the 2011 Budget by a month. Parliament and Government cannot prevent the President from carrying out his Constitutional duties.

Finally, we hope that this article can help our people, civil society, journalists and leaders understand the President’s Constitutional responsibilities. Thank you.

Prezidente haruka Orsamentu 2011 ba Tribunal, hanesan LH suzere

2011-02-09T15:00:00.000+09:00

Iha loron 4 Fevereiru, La’o Hamutuk hakerek karta ida ba Prezidente Jose Ramos-Horta (mos tradusaun ba Ingles) husu nia atu la bele promulga Orsamentu Estadu biliaun $1.3 ne’ebe pasa ona iha Parlamentu iha fulan Janeiru nia rohan.

Loron tolu tuir mai, Prezidente husu ba Tribunal Rekursu atu hare lei orsamentu ida ne’e nia legalidade no konstitusionalidade, ne’ebe nia kresimentu sae 98% liu Orsamentu Jeral Estadu original 2010 nian. Ami publika ona Prezidente nian karta no karta husi Tribunal Rekursu ba Parlamentu iha ami nia website, ne’ebe mos traduz dokumentus ba lingua Ingles no inklui dokumentus relevante sira seluk. Tribunal Rekursu tenke deside molok loron 17 Fevereiru; ami espera katak sei iha konsellu ida ne’ebe matenek ba Prezidente atu fo fila Lei Orsamentu ne’e ba Governu no Parlamentu atu halo revisaun.

Pontus importante iha karta La’o Hamutuk nian maka:

Gastus la sustentavel no ameasa objektivu Lei Fundu Petroleu.

Tuir Orsamentu 2011 ne’e, Timor-Leste sei gasta tokon $1,306 inklui tokon $1,055 ne’ebe transfere husi Fundu Petroleu durante tinan 2011 no tokon $141 mai husi osan restu ne’ebe la konsege gasta iha Orsamentu 2010, ne’ebe mai mos husi Fundu Petroleu. Kresimentu ida ne’e la justifikadu, espesialmente desde posu rua esplorasaun mina-rai nian foin dadauk ne’e maran.

Fundu Infraestrutura nudar presedente at.

Besik 50% Orsamentu Jeral Estadu 2011 ne’ebe aprova ona husi Parlamentu aloka ba iha Fundu Infraestrutura no Fundu Dezenvolvimentu Kapital Umanu. Governu hateten katak sira estabelese Fundu Espesial hirak ne’e bazeia ba Lei Orsamentu no Jestaun Finanseiru ne’ebe Parlamentu aprova ona iha tinan 2009, maibe interpretasaun ba lei ne’e kua tiha ona poder Konstitusional Parlamentu nian “Delibera kona-ba Planu no Orsamentu Estadu nian no mós relatóriu kona-ba orsamentu ne’e;” no “Fiskaliza oinsá Estadu hala’o orsamentu nasionál.” no mos ami hare katak orsamentu ida ne’e ne’ebe lalais liu aloka hodi finansia atu ezekuta Planu Estratejiku Dezenvolvimentu Nasional (PEDN), ne’ebe Parlamentu seidauk hare.

Projeitu Eletrisidade Oleu Pezadu bele fakar osan.

Orsamentu ne’e aloka tokon $448 ba projeitu eletrisidade oleu pezadu no linha transmisaun nian, maibe ami hare katak informasaun sira ne’ebe Governu fo ne’e barak mak seidauk kompletu. Tinan barak nia laran, projeitu ne’e hetan problema boot husi konseitu ne’ebe la klaru, laiha planu, iha iregularidade iha aprovisionamentu, kontraktor ne’ebe labele fiar, la hatan promesa, estragus ambiental, iha segredu. Timor-Leste gasta tiha ona osan liu tokon $100 ba projeitu ne’e, no molok gasta liu metade biliaun ida, ami enkoraza Prezidente atu examina alokasaun ida ne’e ho kuidadu.

Prediksaun presu minarai la prudente.

Iha Orsamentu Jeral Estadu 2011, Governu halo asumsaun ba presu mina-rai nian iha futuru sei sai maizumenus as liu 50% ba presu ne’ebe uluk Governu halo iha tinan 2010. Ida ne’e viola tiha Lei Fundu Petroleu katak “asumsaun hotu ne’ebe halo tenke prudente, refleta pratika diak internasional nian no tenke bazeia ba standar konhesimentu internasional”. Politika bazeia ba hakarak duke ba prudensia bele halakon benefisiu husi rekursu naun renovavel Timor-Leste nian ba ita nia oan sira.

Favor duni demoniu “Malisan Rekursu”.

Nivel gastus husi Orsamentu ida ne’e lori ona Timor-Leste atu hakbesik an ba malisan rekursu no mos ameasa ba estabilidade finanseiru Timor-Leste nian iha futuru. Instituisaun Estadu hetan apoiu husi Orsamentu ida ne’e tenke garante katak Orsamentu nian tenke ba povo laos deit nudar instrumentu politiku ba objetivu eleitoral.
Tamba ne’e ami hanoin katak ita boot nudar “Xefe-Estadu, símbulu no garantia independénsia nasionál no unidade Estadu nian, no instituisaun demokrátika sira-nia funsionamentu regular” hanesan hateten iha ita nia Konstituisaun, atu bele uza ita boot nia kompetensia ida ne’e hodi salva estadu ida ne’e husi instabilidade ekonomia no pobreza iha futuru, basa ameasa ekonomia ne’ebe la stabil sei fo ameasa mos ba independensia nasional no unidade estadu nian.

Prezidente Republika husu ba Tribunal Rekursu atu hetan apresiasaun ho pergunta tolu:

Bainhira atu kria Fundu Espesial tuir Lei Orsamentu ne’e mak diak liu tan ka kria ho lei spesifiku ketak ida, bele hetan permite husi Konstituisaun RDTL Artigu 145.2?
Bainhira kria Fundu Espesial lahoo spesifikasaun ba gastus ho detailhadu ne’ebe sei selu ba Fundu ne’e, nia viola ezizensia transparansia ne’ebe hateten iha Konstituisaun RDTL Artigu 145.2?
Bainhira atu transfere tokon $321 liu Rendimentu Sustentavel Estimadu laho esplikasuan ne’ebe deitalhadu kona-ba oinsa ida ne’e ba Timor-Leste nia interese tempu naruk ne’e viola Lei Fundu Petroleu Artigu 9 ne’ebe iha forsa superior ne’e ka lae?

Parliament increases 2011 budget by $320 million

2011-01-28T15:15:00.000+09:00

During the budget debate, Parliament increased the 2011 expenditure for the heavy oil power project by $282 million, and made other increases. On 28 January, they approved the budget after increasing the amount to be transferred from the Petroleum Fund to $1,055 million, which is $321 million above the Government's optimistic estimate of the sustainable income. This graph shows how the new budget compares with the proposed one, and with past expenditure levels.

Parlamentu Nasional aumenta gastu iha Orsamentu Estadu 2011 ba tokon $320, inklui tokon $282 ba projeitu oleu pezadu. Iha loron 28 Janeiro, sira aprova ona OJE, maibe hasai transferensia husi Fundu Petroliferu iha tinan 2011 to'o bilaun $1,055, $321 liu Rendimentu Sustentavel Estimatiza. Bele hare mudansa iha grafiku tuir mai.