25 June 2014

Nauk ona husi Timor-Leste

La’o Hamutuk fó ona avizu ba tinan barak nia laran katak riku soin petróleu Timor-Leste, bainhira hare hosi kuak iha ita nia sistema jestaun no nivel esperiénsia no kapasidade ne’ebé limitadu, Timor-Leste sai tiha alvu atu nauk. Kriminozu sira iha mundu tomak laran monu tanba Timor-Leste gasta dolar biliaun kada tinan, no sira kaben turu ba ita nia biliaun $16 iha Fundu Petrolíferu. Ohin loron, ami nia ta’uk sai tiha realidade.

Ofisiais FBI nian iha EUA kaer ona cidadaun EUA ne’ebé moris iha Nigeria Bobby Boye kinta-feira liu ba, akuza nia ho krime hitu ne’ebé involve nauk osan liu tokon $3.5 hosi Povu Timor-Leste.

Boye mai Timor-Leste iha 2010 nudár parte ida hosi programa asisténsia hosi Noruega iha Setór Petróleu ho valor tokon $ 4 ba programa tinan hat nian ne’ebé hotu iha 2012, no nia servisu nudár assessor iha Diresaun Nasionál ba Reseita Petróleu iha Ministériu Finansas to’o tinan kotuk. Tuir FBI, Boye kria kompañia legal falsu ida iha New York no uza kompañia ne’e atu hetan kontratu ho valor tokon $7.8 hosi Ministériu Finansa Timor-Leste. Timor-Leste la hatene katak “Opus & Best” nudár kompañia ne’ebé la eziste ka Boye mak iha kompañia ida ne’e nia kotuk. Aliende ne'e, Timor-Leste seidauk hatene kona-ba nia istoria tinan sanulu hanesan bosok-teen, koruptor, na'ok-teen, no kriminoso.

Ofisiais Timor-Leste nian hahú deskonfia hafoin halo pagamentu liu tokon $3.5 ba Boye nia kompañia falsu ida ne’e durante 2012. Ema hateten ami katak hafoin ne’e, Timor-Leste nia ofisiais sira servisu hamutuk ho FBI EUA, Ministériu Negósiu Estranjeiru Noruega no dala ruma ema seluk tan, atu dezenvolve kazu kontra Boye.

Tuir FBI nia dokumentu legal katak, Boye gasta osan sira ne’ebé nia nauk ne’e atu sosa rai pedasuk haat iha New Jersey, karreta luxu tolu (inklui Rolls Royce no Bentley) no sasán sira seluk tan. Karik provadu sala ho alegasaun tomak, Boye bele hetan pena prizaun ba tinan 140, ho multa dolar tokon balu, no tenke selu fali osan ne’ebé nia hetan hosi nauk ne’e.

La’o Hamutuk iha informasaun no dokumentu kona-ba nia kazu ida ne’e iha ami nia pájina web, ne’ebé sei atualiza bainhira ami hetan tan informasaun.

Bobby Boye dudu Governu Timor-Leste atu akuza ConocoPhillips no kompañia mina-rai sira seluk ne’ebé lohi atu selu sira nia taxa ba Timor-Leste, lori kazu lubuk liu sanulu resin rua hodi kontra sira ho valor rihun tokon dollar. Kompañia sira selu osan sira ne’e maibé nafatin protesta atu selu hodi hanoin atu evita atu selu barak liu tan multa, nune’e sira lori kazu ba arbitrajen. Kazu barak hosi ne’e agora iha ona painél arbitrajen nia oin iha Singapore, ne’ebé sei deside servisu Boye nian iha Timor-Leste ne’e lejítimu ka lae.
Aleinde hetan saláriu hosi Noriega no osan ne’ebé nia hetan hosi nauk nian (fraude), Boye mós saláriu rihun $250 hosi Fundu Kontinjénsia hosi Governu Timor-Leste durante 2011, ne’ebé halo nia nudár ema ida ne’ebé hetan saláriu ida ne’ebé as liu iha rai ida ne’e. Bainhira ami hakarak atu hatene asuntu ida ne’e iha fulan Novembru 2012, La’o Hamutuk husu ba Boye buat ne’e, no nia hatán:
“Primeiru Ministru Timor-Leste ho rekomendasaun hosi Vice Ministru Finansa, DG Reseita no Alfándega no Diretór Nasionál ba Diresaun Nasionál Reseita Petróleu nian aprova kompensasaun adisionál ba ha’u bazeia ba ha’u nia dezempeñu. Kontratu servisu ho Norwegia (ne’ebé hakotu ona) la impede kompensasaun adisionál ne’ebé ha’u hetan hosi Governu Timor-Leste ba servisu ne’ebé ha’u halo durante kalendáriu 2011. Atu simu ida ne’e ka lae, daudauk ne’e labele debate. ...
   “Atu hateten loloos katak ema ne’ebé hakarak atu husu pergunta tenke la’o ba oin no halo ida ne’e maibé ha’u sei enkoraja sira atu mós hare ba rezultadu servisu ne’ebé ha’u halo iha ne’e. Aleinde hosi buat la'os tanjivel seluk hanesan hasa’e kapasidade, estrutura iha Diresaun Nasionál Reseita Petróleu, ha’u lori duni ona liu tokon $300 reseita adisionál ba TL liu hosi esforsu mesak ne’ebé la’ós de’it atu ke’e de’it ida iha leten maibé atu konsidera saida mak iha ba kadoras ba TL.

   “Ha’u gasta maizumenus oras 14 ba loron ida, loron hitu iha semana ida ba saida mak ha’u halo iha ne’e. Ha’u nia talentu ne’e fasil atu lori ba mai no karik ema ruma iha Governu laran ka hosi li’ur hanoin katak ha’u hetan pagamentu ida ne’ebé barak liu, ha’u prefere liu atu sai lalais liu, hodi nune’e sira bele buka ema seluk ne’ebé baratu liu atu troka ha’u.”
Ami la duvida katak Boye servisu maka’as duni – aléinde ba nia servisu nudár assessor ida, nia mós sub-subar halo servisu tomak ba kompañia falsu ida (ka maizumenus nato’on atu fó atensaun hodi la hatudu nia an). No nia sai lalais bainhira ema hahú husu pergunta sira .... maibé hare ba nia la nato’on lalais hodi evita polisia EUA sira.

Ami buka atu aprende liu tan kona-ba kazu Boye, no preokupa hela karik iha ema EUA seluk ka Timor oan balu involve iha kazu ne’e. Timor-Leste tenke sente sorte katak Boye foti de’it tokon $4 hosi ita (maizumenus hanesan ho despeza mensal Ministériu Saúde nian). Uza kazu ne’e nudár lisaun ba ukun na’in sira, sidadaun no ema hotu ne’ebé fiar katak Timor-Leste nia riku-soin limitadu ne’ebé tenke uza atu hadi’ak moris ita nia povu sira.

Autoridade EUA nia hateten katak nia iha tinan 50, aas 190 cm, todan 96kg, nia fuuk metan no nia matan moreno.

Atualiza loron 6 Outubru: Iha loron 20 Juñu, loron ida hafoin FBI kaptura Bobby Boye, juiz ida fó liberdade kondisionál (TIR) ba nia hafoin diskusaun minutu sanulu iha tribunal. Boye promete nia uma (liman los) hanesan garantia ho valor tokon dolar $1.5.

Iha loron 2 Jullu, juiz ida adia prosesu iha tribunal to’o loron 22 Agosto atu fó tempu ba Boye nia advogadu no Ministériu Públiku atu hetan akordu (admite ba krime ki’ik liu) at kansela julgamentu "atu servi interese justisa."  Iha fulan Agosto, juiz adia prosesu liu tan, to'o loron 22 Outubru.

Bele hetan informasaun detalladu liu iha website La'o Hamutuk nian.

23 June 2014

Timor-Leste has been robbed!

In April 2015, Boye admitted guilt to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. More here.
Updated 25 August; see below.  On 16 September, LH published an extensive webpage on this case.
La'o Hamutuk has warned for years that Timor-Leste's petroleum wealth, when viewed through the cracks in our  management systems and limited levels of experience and capacity, makes us a tempting target, Criminals from all over the world are enticed by the billion dollars Timor-Leste spends each year, and drool over our $16 billion Petroleum Fund. Our fears have now been confirmed.

FBI officials in the USA arrested Nigerian-born U.S. citizen Bobby Boye last Thursday, charging him with seven crimes involving the theft of more than $3.5 million from Timor-Leste's people.

Boye came to Timor-Leste in 2010 as part of Norway's assistance program in the Petroleum Sector, a $4 million, four-year program that finished in 2012, and he  worked as an adviser in the National Directorate for Petroleum Revenue in the Ministry of Finance until last year. According to the FBI, Boye created a fake law firm in New York and arranged for it to get $7.8 million in contracts from Timor-Leste's Ministry of Finance. Timor-Leste was unaware that the "Opus & Best" company didn't exist or that Boye was behind it.

RDTL officials became suspicious only after paying more than $3.5 million to Boye's fake company during 2012. We were told that they then worked with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Norwegian Foreign Ministry and perhaps others, to develop the case against Boye.

According to the FBI's legal filing, Boye spent his ill-gotten gains on four pieces of land in New Jersey, three luxury cars (including a Rolls Royce and a Bentley) and other items. If convicted on all charges, Boye could be imprisoned for 140 years, fined several million dollars, and ordered to repay the money he obtained by fraud.

La'o Hamutuk has information and documents about this case on our web page on back petroleum taxes, which will be updated as we learn more.

Bobby Boye pushed Timor-Leste's government to accuse ConocoPhillips and other oil companies of cheating on their taxes to Timor-Leste, leading to dozens of cases against them totaling hundreds of millions of dollars. The companies paid under protest in order to avoid escalating penalties while appealing. Many of these cases are currently before an arbitration panel in Singapore, which will decide whether this part of Boye's work in Timor-Leste was legitimate.

In addition to his salary from Norway and the money he obtained by fraud, Boye received a $250,000 salary from the Timor-Leste Government's Contingency Fund during 2011, which probably made him the highest paid person in the country.  When we learned of this in November 2012, La'o Hamutuk asked Boye about it, and he replied:
"The Timor-Leste Prime Minister upon recommendation from the then Vice Minister of Finance, DG Revenue & Customs and the National Director of NDPR approved additional compensation for me based on my performance. The employment contract with Norway (now terminated) did not preclude the additional compensation that I received from the TL Government for the services that I rendered during the 2011 calendar year. Whether I am entitled to it or have earned is beyond debate. ...
   "Quite frankly the people that want to ask questions should go ahead and do so but I will encourage them to also look at the results of what I am doing here. Aside from other intangibles like capacity building, structure at NDPR, I have literally brought in over $300 million of additional revenue to TL through solo efforts and that is a mere scratch on the surface-considering what is in the pipeline for TL.
  "I spend an average of 14 hours a day, 7 days a week on what I do here. My talent is portable and if anybody thinks in and out government that I am paid too much, I am more than willing to move on-fairly quickly, so that they can get a cheap replacement."
We don't doubt that Boye worked hard -- in addition to his job as an adviser, he was secretly doing the work of an entire law firm (or at least enough to keep up appearances). And he did move on fairly quickly once people started asking questions ... but apparently not quickly enough to stay ahead of the feds.

We look forward to learning more about the Boye case, and wonder if other U.S. or Timorese people were involved. Timor-Leste should feel lucky that Boye only took us for around $4 million (about as much as the Ministry of Health spends each month). Let this be a lesson for officials, citizens, and everyone who believes that Timor-Leste's finite petroleum wealth should be used to improve the lives of its people.

U.S. authorities say Bobby Boye is 50 years old, 6'3" (190 cm) tall, weighs 211 pounds (96 kg), and has black hair and brown eyes.

Update, 6 July: On 20 June, the day after Bobby Boye was arrested, a judge granted him conditional pre-trial release (TIR) after a 10-minute court appearance. Boye offered his home (right) to guarantee the $1.5 million dollar bond.

On 2 July, a judge suspended proceedings in the case until 22 August to allow Boye's attorneys and federal prosecutors time to negotiate a plea bargain "in the interests of justice."

Update, 23 August: On 21 July, La'o Hamutuk wrote to the prosecutor, urging her to take the case to trial in order to reveal more information about possible violations of Timor-Leste and Norwegian law, as well as who may have conspired with Boye.

On 12 August, the judge extended the suspension of proceeding for 60 days more, until 22 October, because "both the United States and the defendant desire additional time to negotiate a plea agreement, which would render any grand jury proceedings and any subsequent trial of this matter unnecessary."

On 23 August the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten published a long article "(Norway's) Finance Department sends swindler to help Timor-Leste" detailing Boye's long criminal record and the sloppy procedures by which Norway hired him to work in Timor-Leste. Aftenpposten published a shorter English version two days later.

More information is on La'o Hamutuk's website.

18 June 2014

To’o bainhira Fundu Petrolíferu sei lori Timor-Leste?

Ami foin publika kapitulu akademiku ida ne'e iha Tetum.  Bele hetan iha artigu tomak iha ne'e, ka English version here.

Abstratu

Daudauk ne’e petróleu no gas fornese liu 95% reseita estadu no kuatru-kintu (4/5) hosi Timor-Leste nia GDP. Rendimentu hosi esportasaun riku-soin naun renovavel petróleu kanaliza liu ba Fundu Petróleu ne’ebé iha ona billaun $15. Iha espetasaun lubuk katak saldu no lukru investimentu Fundu Petróleu nian sei selu atividade estadu nian hafoin kampu petróleu no gas maran ona, ne’ebé bele akontese iha 2020 karik projetu Greater Sunrise kontinua la ba oin. Infelizmente, Fundu Petróleu bele maran iha tinan lima tan hafoin tempu ne’ebá.

Papél ida ne’e deskreve modelu ida atu halo projesaun to’o bainhira loos Fundu Petrolíferu bele finansia atividade estadu nian. Modelu ne’e inkorpora dadus istóriku no projesaun nian, inklui despeza rekurrente no kapitál, reseita doméstika, empréstimu no nia tusan, rendimentu petróleu, no retornu investimentu hosi Fundu Petróleu. Modelu ne’e fó lisensa atu muda parametru no mós atu antisipa presu mina iha merkadu, taxa de jurus no opsaun ba dezenvolve Sunrise.

Probabilidade katak Fundu Petróleu bele hotu iha dékada ida nia laran fó sinál urjente ba ita atu dezenvolve ekonomia naun-petróleu Timor-Leste, aumenta reseita doméstiku no uza fundu públiku nian ho matenek.

04 June 2014

Konvite ba diskusaun Orsamentu Estadu 2015 no Sustentabilidade Fiskál

Foin daudauk ne’e, Governu hala’o ona sira nia workshop “Yellow Road” internal atu diskute planu orsamentál ba tinan fiskál 2015. La’o Hamutuk hanoin katak importante tebes mós ba públiku tomak atu bele iha informasaun ne’ebé nato’on kona-ba sá polítika fiskál ba 2015 ne’ebé  deside ona atu halo ba Timor-Leste nia futuru. Tanba ne’e, ami konvida ita-boot sira atu bele partisipa iha Enkontru Públiku ho tema Orsamentu Estadu 2015 no Sustentabilidade Fiskál ne’ebé realiza iha:

Loron    : Kuarta Feira, 11 Juñu 2014
Oras       : 08.45-12.00
Fatin      : Aula Asosiasaun HAK, Farol, Dili


08:45    Rejistrasaun   
09:00    Introdusaun 
09:15    Aprezentasaun Panorama Ekonomiku no Politika Fiskal Timor-Leste (mos PDF)             husi Helder Lopes, Koordenador Politika Ekonomia, Ministériu Finansa
09:50    Aprezentasaun Sustentabilidade Fiskál ba Timor-Leste (mos PDF)

             husi Charles Scheiner, Peskizadór, La’o Hamutuk
10:25    Diskusaun  
12:00    Enserramentu  
Ita bele hetan aprezentasaun no PDF rua husi enkontru ida ne'e husi ligasaun iha leten ka iha ne'e.

02 June 2014

Can the Petroleum Fund Exorcise the Resource Curse from Timor-Leste?

This blog was updated on 27 February 2015
La'o Hamutuk recently circulated a referenced academic paper which describes the resource curse in Timor-Leste and, sadly, concludes that the Petroleum Fund is inadequate to keep the nation from falling into dire poverty in less than 20 years. Read the September 2014 paper on-line or download the February 2015 update of the paper as a PDF

Australian National University published a two-page "In Brief" summary of this paper in July 2014, and Timor-Leste's Ministry of Finance issued an eight-page response a few weeks later. We hope they will give similar attention to the completed, updated paper.

Contents

  •   Oil swamps the economy.
  •   Oil fuels the state machinery.
  •   The Sovereign Wealth Fund saves petroleum revenues.
  •   Spending grows quickly, but not always wisely.
  •   The resource curse has many faces.
  •   This petro-state doesn’t have much petrol.
  •   There isn't much time.
  •   Notes
  •   References and bibliography

Abstract

Oil and gas exports provide about 95% of state revenues and three-fourths of GDP, making Timor-Leste one of the most petroleum-dependent countries in the world. Although this fuelled double-digit GDP growth from 2007 through 2011, poverty and inequality are increasing. Current development plans are unlikely to rescue Timor-Leste’s people from the resource curse which distorts planning, governance, decision-making and politics, leading to neglect of non-petroleum investments, especially agriculture and human resources.
Income from exporting non-renewable petroleum wealth is channeled through a Petroleum Fund which contains US$17 billion. Although Timor-Leste’s currently active oil and gas fields may be dry by 2020, many believe that earnings from Petroleum Fund investments will continue to pay for state activities. Unfortunately, La’o Hamutuk’s model shows that the Petroleum Fund may be empty within five years after that.
The prospect that the Petroleum Fund could be gone in a decade underscores the urgency to develop Timor-Leste’s non-oil economy, increase domestic revenue and use public funds wisely. The Petroleum Fund may have created an illusion of economic security that allowed avoiding difficult decisions and challenging tasks.