Solidarity Should be Shown

Last Tuesday, several thousand Timorese citizens rallied peacefully in front of the Australian Embassy in Fatuhada, Dili, to urge the Australian Government to comply with international law and respect Timor-Leste's sovereignty by negotiating a fair maritime boundary or allowing the issue to be decided by an impartial court or arbitration. As in previous protests on this issue in 2004. 2005 and 2013, there was no violence or threats; passers-by mingled with participants, and demonstrators obeyed strings which delimited areas they were not supposed to enter. In fact, police and embassy security were more respectful than at previous protests and kept their distance; the crowd largely controlled itself.

Although strong views were expressed ("Governu Australia ... Na'ok-teen" was a frequent call and response) and speakers were eloquent and vociferous, most participants turned their backs to the embassy, preferring to face the stage. A few speakers appealed directly in English to Ambassador Peter Doyle's conscience, but the sound system was probably not loud enough to cross the street and walls. We expect that his plainclothes staff have passed on the message, although organizers had written to him the day before.

Many Timorese expressed their appreciation that international solidarity is continuing to support Timor-Leste in this phase of its independence struggle, as activists around the world had done during 24 years of struggle against Indonesian occupation. Unfortunately, the solidarity was more virtual than visible -- fewer than ten malaes attended, and not a single Australian national. (There were a lot of people there, and we could be mistaken -- apologies to any Australians who passed unseen in the hot noonday sun.)

La'o Hamutuk has talked with many Australians, both here and in Australia, who support Timor-Leste's right to a fair maritime border with their country.  But unlike at previous rallies here, they did not make an appearance, although protests and well-attended conferences in Australia during the last few months attest to their integrity and determination. We understand that people who work for the Australian government, the programs it funds, or the United Nations have had to surrender their freedom of speech on these issues, but many others have not.

We hope that the warning messages distributed by the Australian Embassy (left), the U.S. Embassy (right) and the United Nations (below) didn't scare people away. Australia told its citizens to "avoid spontaneous gatherings, demonstrations, protests, street rallies and other large public gatherings," while the United States warned that "Even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence with little or no warning. U.S. citizens should avoid areas of demonstrations, and exercise caution if in the vicinity of any large gatherings, protests, or demonstrations."

The United Nations, which has worked hard to support human rights, sovereignty and democracy in Timor-Leste, sent an internal 'broadcast' to its staff the day before the demonstration that "Although the event is announced as a peaceful protest, such issues can always deteriorate and develop into something less organized. Therefore UNDSS is as usual reminding staff members and dependants (sic) to avoid large crowds and gatherings as this could always have potential to turn into a mob."  As all UN staff sign contracts agreeing not to participate in such events, this may have been unnecessary. A second UN 'security broadcast' on the morning of the protest expected "some traffic disturbance" and reminded "staff and dependants to avoid getting caught in a crowd as it can always change into a mop (sic) with short notice. PNTL is at the scene."

Last November, citizens all over the world rallied to urge governments to do more to prevent  changes to the climate. In Melbourne, Pacific Islanders joined thousands of Australians and others to voice their alarm at impending disaster if Australia, the United States and other fossil-fuelled industrialized nations do not change their direction. Nobody told people to stay away or to be afraid of violence, mobs or confrontation.

Respect is not only about a fair maritime boundary, it's also about respecting Timorese people's dignity, character, self-control, humanity and rights to peaceful expression.

For more photos of the Dili demonstration, as well as other information and background on the maritime boundaries dispute, see La'o Hamutuk's website. The most recent material is toward the bottom of the page.

MKOTT Deklarasaun ba Governu Australia

Liu tinan 40 ona Australia goza reseita hosi rekursu mina-rai no tasi nian iha area Tasi Timor ne’ebé loloos tuir lei no prinsipiu internasionál nian pertense ba Timor-Leste. Iha inísiu kedas Australia buka argumentu oi-oin atu justifika sira nia kaan-teen ne’e. Hanesan iha 1972, Australia halo akordu ho Indonézia atu define sira nia fronteira. Argumentu falsu ba “plataforma Kontinental” hosi Australia halo sira okupa, domina no nauk hosi povu Timor-Leste.

Iha 1974, Kompañia mina-rai sira Australia nian deskobre kampu gas Greater Sunrise. Atu halo fasil sira hodi hetan riku-soin hosi Greater Sunrise no seluk tan iha Timor-Leste nia territóriu, Australia suporta invazaun Indonézia nian mai Timor-Leste iha 1975 ne’ebé oho besik ema 200,000.

Bainhira Timor-Leste manán independénsia hosi okupasaun ilegál hosi Indonézia, Australia nafatin hakarak atu hetan porsaun balu hosi riku-soin povu Timor-Leste nian liu hosi obriga Timor-Leste atu rekoñese direitu balu Australia nian ba iha kampu mina-rai Elang Kakatua,  Bayu Undan, Greater Sunrise no mós halo Timor-Leste tenke lakon nia direitu ba kampu mina-rai Laminaria, Corralina no Buffalo ne’ebé to’o ohin loron sei sai area disputa entre rai rua nian.

Ema Australia barak mak hanoin katak sira nia Governu mak laran luak liu ba povu Timor, maibé buat ne’e la loos. Dezde 1999, Australia fó maizumenus biliaun $1.7 liu hosi programa asisténsia militár no sivíl nian mai Timor-Leste liu hosi mekanizmu bilateral no multilateral nian. Maibé, durante tinan sanulu resin ne’e hanesan, Governu Australia mós simu osan besik biliaun $5 hosi reseita sira hosi kampu petróleu no gas ne’ebé loloos pertense ba direitu Timor-Leste nian. Tanba ne’e, liu biliaun tolu ne’ebé Timor-Leste “fó” ona ba Australia halo Povu Timor-Leste mak sai Australia nia doadór boot liu, la’ós Australia mak Timor nia doadór boot.

Ho buat injustisa lubuk ne’ebé Timor-Leste enfrenta hela hosi okupasaun Australia nian ba Tasi Timor, nune’e, Movimentu Kontra Okupasaun Tasi Timor (MKOTT) husu ba Governu Australia hanesan tuir mai ne’e:

1. Australia tenke respeita no trata soberania no dignidade nasaun Timor-Leste nian hanesan sira halo ba nasaun sira seluk iha mundu.
2. Australia tenke fila ba mekanizmu disputa fronteira maritima nian tuir jurizdisaun Tribunal Internasionál ba Justisa (International Court of Justice) no Tribunal Internasionál ba Lei Tasi nian (ITLOS).
3. Australia tenke halo negosiasaun ho Governu Timor-Leste ho vontade ne’ebé di’ak.
4. Australia labele kontinua argumentu kona-ba “Plataforma Kontinental” ne’ebé la válidu ona.
5. Australia nudár nasaun boot labele uza nia podér ekonomia no polítika iha rejiaun ne’e atu kontinua nauk futuru Timor oan sira nian.

Viva Timor-Leste!
Viva Povu Maubere!
Abaixu Okupasaun Australia ba Tasi Timor!

Reprezentante Movimentu,
Juvinal Dias, Reprezentante Sosiedade Sivíl   
Faustino Soares, Reprezentante Universitariu  
Jorge Alves (Wemoris), Reprezentante Veteranu

Dili, 23 Fevreiru 2016

Boye in prison, appeals sentence

Updated 30 January 2016
Nigerian-American lawyer/adviser Bobby Boye, convicted of defrauding Timor-Leste of more than US $3.51 million, has begun serving his six-year prison sentence.  With time off for good behavior, he will get out on 18 February, 2021.

Last April, Boye pleaded guilty as part of a plea-bargaining process, avoiding a trial which would have exposed information about his crimes to public scrutiny.  He also promised to repay Timor-Leste for the damage caused by directing Timor-Leste Government contracts to his nonexistent company, which the court said was  $3.51 million.  La'o Hamutuk estimates that Boye's scams cost Timor-Leste about fifty times that amount, although the court and the prosecutors did not respond to our suggestion.

Although he admitted his guilt and promised to repay, Boye was apparently surprised that he received the maximum prison time under federal sentencing guidelines. After the sentence was handed down and explained by Judge Freda Wolfson on 15 October 2015, he fired his taxpayer-paid public defender and hired a private lawyer.

On 16 November, Boye's new attorney Michael Confusione told the court that he intends to appeal the sentence, arguing that it should be little to no jail time because Timor-Leste received services in return for the fraudulent payments Boye extracted.

On 25 November, Confusione and prosecutors filed motions back and forth about expediting the appeal process, which was denied.

On 21 January 2016, another set of motions debated whether the appeal should be summarily dismissed. Confusione argued that the long sentence is a "miscarriage of justice," which prosecutors argued was "wholly unsupported by any argument, any case law, or any facts."

Boye's attorney filed a 49-page appeal brief and supporting documents on 25 January. On 28 January, a three-judge appeals court panel rejected his appeal and upheld the lower court verdict and six-year sentence.
 
La'o Hamutuk has collected the key documents in the appeal process here.

La'o Hamutuk continues to hope that the competent Timor-Leste authorities will investigate who else was involved with Boye's crimes, especially Timorese officials, and take appropriate action to prosecute them.  We have compiled a lot of information about these crimes and the U.S. legal process at http://www.laohamutuk.org/econ/corruption/Boye/14BoyeCase.htm, which we will continue to update.

Hyundai E&C’s history of corruption

On 12 June 2015, Timor-Leste's National Procurement Commission announced that it intended to award the contract for the design and construction of the Suai Supply Base to the consortium of Hyundai Engineering & Construction Co., Ltd and Hyundai Engineering Co., Ltd.  The contract was signed on 27 August 2015, and the project primarily involves constructing a 3.3 km concrete seawall, with construction expected to be completed by September 2018. This is the largest contract in Timor-Leste’s history – $719 million – more than the total that the country has spent on education since independence in 2002.  Timor-Leste's Audit Court invalidated the contact, reportedly because of Hyundai's record and irregularities in the procurement process, but the Government is appealing the ruling.

Hyundai E&C (HEC) is the largest engineering company in South Korea, and is among the fifteen largest international contractors in the world. It employs 60,000 people and has annual income of more than $16 billion dollars. The company wields considerable political influence in South Korea as one of the major chaebol (family-run conglomerates) which dominate Korean business and politics; its former CEO, Lee Myung-Bak, was the President of Korea from 2008 to 2013.

Since 2012, Hyundai E&C has been sanctioned many times for collusion by the Korean Fair Trade Commission (KFTC), the government body in charge of investigating and prosecuting corruption cases and anti-competitive practices involving Korean businesses. This article contains links to Korean Government documents, and also uses Korean media articles as secondary sources. Some links are in English, while others link to Korean language documents.

HEC has most often been charged with bid rigging, where nominal “competitors” secretly agree in advance who will win specific contracts, while also conspiring on what prices to bid to maximize profits for the winning (lowest) bidder. This causes the people to have to pay much more for infrastructure.

One major scandal involved contracts for the construction of a second subway line in Incheon. In January 2014, KFTC issued a press release (Korean) announcing fines of ₩132.2 billion won (around $120 million) for 21 companies. Another KFTC document (Korean) shows that HEC itself was fined ₩14.74b ($13 million).

In April 2014, the Public Procurement Service (PPS) banned (Korean) Hyundai E&C and other companies from bidding on government contracts between May 2014 and May 2016. However, HEC appealed (Korean) PPS’s decision to blacklist them, and the pending appeal allowed the company to continue to bid for contracts while the case was in progress. The appeal was never decided.

In a separate ruling in December 2014, Seoul High Court ruled (Korean) that Hyundai E&C and the other companies did not have to pay fines in relation to the Incheon Subway collusion, but the blacklist remained in effect. The Court decision was only about the fines in the Incheon case -- HEC has also been convicted in many other collusion cases, and those fines and sanctions still stand.

13 July 2015: President Park Geun-hye
calls for special pardons to mark the
70th anniversary of Korea's
independence from Japan.

Finally, on 15 August 2015, the Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced (Korean) that, as part of amnesties issued for the 70th anniversary of Korean independence, the government had lifted the ban on the construction companies’ bidding for government contracts “to promote national unity and economic vitality.” However, the press release also said that fines and criminal convictions for corruption would remain in place.

La’o Hamutuk previously circulated a JoongAng News article which said that HEC had been blacklisted by the Korean Government for collusion. Even though the ban technically never came into effect, HEC was convicted of corruption in 2014 and banned from bidding for public contracts for two years. Although they were un-blacklisted for this case in August 2015 (two months after Timor-Leste decided to award them a $719 million contract), HEC has been penalized for many other corrupt and criminal activities.

The Four Rivers construction project, which began in 2009, led to a major scandal in which several major construction companies were indicted in 2013. HEC was fined ₩22b ($20 million) by KFTC, and the Supreme Court upheld the fine (Korean) in December 2014. In addition, media including Korea Times Daily, KHL Group and Korea Economic Daily reported in late 2013 that HEC and several other companies were to be banned from bidding for government contracts by the Public Procurement Service for 15 months over the Four Rivers scandal.

Hyundai E&C has been fined many other times. Indeed, The Korea Times wrote on 8 December 2015 that KFTC has fined HEC a total of ₩182.4b ($165 million) since 2010.

• In March 2014, HEC was fined over ₩10b ($9 million) for bid rigging in relation to Daegu metro and Busan subway contracts.
  
• In April 2014, the Korea Herald reported that HEC had been fined ₩13.3b ($13 million) for bid rigging in relation to the Ara Waterway project.
  
• In April 2014, KFTC announced (Korean) that they had fined HEC ₩13.4b ($13 million) for collusion in relation to the Kyungin canal project. K-Water (the Government agency for water management) also blacklisted HEC for nine months.
  
• In July 2014, media including Yonhap News reported that a record fine of ₩435.5b ($420 million) had been imposed on a group of 28 companies for colluding over contracts for building a high-speed rail system in Honam. According to JoongAng News, HEC’s individual fine was ₩59.8b ($58 million).
  
• In October 2014, Yonhap News reported that HEC was fined ₩6.3b ($6 million) for colluding on bids for a construction project in Youngilman port in Pohang.
  
• In May 2015, HEC was one of 22 companies fined ₩175b ($160 million) by KFTC for colluding over gas pipeline and office construction contracts in 2009 and 2011. Yonhap News reported that HEC was fined ₩36b ($32.5 million) in relation to this case.

Large corporations have often abused the disproportional political power they hold in South Korea. Hyundai E&C has sometimes managed to evade penalties by filing appeals and receiving pardons, but the company has a long record of convictions for corruption. The people who manage Timor-Leste’s people’s money should ensure that every company receiving a government contract meets standards for integrity and has no record of criminality. If not, our limited management experience and capacity could allow corrupt foreign companies to steal the money we have saved from our people’s oil and gas wealth.

La’o Hamutuk hopes that this article will help Timor-Leste’s judges and policymakers decide whether to award nearly a billion dollars to a company which has repeatedly flouted the law and the public interest.
----------
Update: On 16 June 2016, Hyundai E&C announced that it had given up waiting for Timor-Leste's appeals court to overrule the Audit Court decision and that it was withdrawing from the project. 

TL's Human Development Index dropping, but data is lacking

The United Nations Human Development Program (UNDP) just released its 2015 Human Development Report, with statistics and rankings for nearly every country in the world. The report calculates a Human Development Index (HDI) – combining measures of income (GNI per capita), health (life expectancy) and education (years of schooling) – to assess how people are doing. The results are discouraging for Timor-Leste: our HDI is 0.595, ranking 133rd out of 188 countries and territories. Even worse, our HDI has dropped steadily since 2011.

Download the report text,  statistical annex (Excel),  Country Profile for Timor-Leste, and Explanatory Note for Timor-Leste.

Although the HDI was created as an alternative to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) which would consider quality of life as well as money, it does not work this way for this country. Unfortunately, UNDP has no health or education data newer than the 2009-2010 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS). Progress in education in the last six years is not shown, while progress in lifespan is based on a statistical model. Therefore, changes in HDI for Timor-Leste primarily reflect changes in Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, which has been falling since 2011 as oil and gas production drops because the fields are being depleted, exacerbated by last year’s drop in market prices.

Nevertheless, the new Human Development Report is more accurate for this country than the one issued last year, which included overly optimistic projections for GNI. UNDP improved its estimates after discussions with La’o Hamutuk, and the new report also revises Timor-Leste’s HDI for past years. The heavy black line on the graph at right shows Timor-Leste’s HDI trend from the 2015 report. HDI has dropped since 2011 because GNI pc (dotted black line) has been falling.  The thinner red solid and dotted lines show the erroneous values UNDP reported in 2014, which the Government said “confirms good progress”.

Unfortunately the 2014 report was incorrect. With new data and better methodology, the 2015 report shows that Timor-Leste’s global HDI rank is 133, and it has been 132 or 133 every year since 2010, indicating no progress. UNDP calculates an “average annual HDI Growth 2010-2014” for each country. Timor-Leste’s value of negative 0.22%/year is among the worst – only five other countries (Cuba, Libya, Jamaica, Syria and Central African Republic) are losing human development as rapidly as Timor-Leste.

In addition to its narrative report and analysis, the Human Development Report (HDR) includes a statistical annex with valuable information on nearly all countries regarding health, education, economy, inequality, labor, gender, poverty, population, environment and other topics. Unfortunately, some of the information on Timor-Leste is outdated – for example, Multidimensional Poverty comes from the 2009-2010 DHS. We hope that the imminent publication of the 2015 census, Livings Standards Survey and 2016 Demographic and Health Survey will improve knowledge and policy-making about Timor-Leste’s current situation.

The 2015 HDR focuses on how work can enhance human development. Unfortunately, labor statisticians exclude subsistence farmers and fisherpeople from the labor force, limiting the relevance of this report for the more than 2/3 of Timor-Leste’s adults who are outside the formal economy. According to the HDR, Timor-Leste’s “labor force participation rate” of 37.9% is the lowest in the world.

Users of UNDP’s statistical data for Timor-Leste (and the World Bank’s World Development Indicators which is the source for many of them) should be careful. For example, UNDP reports that Timor-Leste spent 1.3% of its GDP on health (the lowest in the world). However, it lists public spending on education as 9.4% of GDP, the sixth highest in the world. Unfortunately, the education figure is wrong – it should be 2.7%, which ranks us 137th out of 160 countries with data. UNDP and the WB apparently calculated education as a percentage of non-oil GDP, ignoring the nearly three-quarters of Timor-Leste’s current economy which is based on petroleum activities.

Such data errors can be propagated in other reports.  For example, the U.S. government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation recently released annual scorecards for MCC candidate countries. Timor-Leste’s “Health Expenditure” rating plunged from 85% in last year’s scorecard to 4% in the latest one. We are disappointed that RDTL spends a little less on health each year, but this drastic drop results from correcting previously erroneous statistics.

Natural human optimism (and politicians’ wish to take credit for improvements) sometimes leads to conclusions which are not justified by facts. In another example, last month the Government celebrated that “Timor-Leste is one of only nine countries estimated to have reduced its Maternal Mortality Ratio [MMR] by over 75% since 1990.” Unfortunately, there is no data to show this. The government press release was based on an article in The Lancet which summarized a 200-page UN interagency report Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 to 2015. As that report says, “Timor-Leste had little to no country-level data.”

More specifically, the report uses a statistical model to extrapolate Timor-Leste’s maternal mortality rates over a 25 year period from two data points in a single year: the 2010 census and the 2009-2010 DHS. The authors assume that changes in GDP (mostly going into the Petroleum Fund in our outlier economy), fertility rate and the fraction of births attended by a health professional must have prevented women from dying in childbirth, but they had no actual information. (See Q&A on the report and Timor-Leste country profile.) According to a UN expert who works here, “maternal mortality still is a serious problem in Timor-Leste” and the interagency group’s estimate of 215 (range 150-300) maternal deaths per 100,000 live births is probably too optimistic – the 2010 census and DHS figures of 570 and 527 could be closer to reality. We await better information from the 2015 Census.

As Timor-Leste's oil and investment income declines, we are at a crossroads and face many critical decisions. Policy-makers need accurate and up-to-date evidence to inform their actions. The government has spent a lot of money over the last eight years, but the benefits for the impoverished rural majority are not yet clear.  We need to know where we are today in order to decide in what direction to go … and we need to change direction if we don’t want to end up where we are headed.

Timor-Leste’s health care and education systems do not yet respond to the needs of most of our people, and the government allocates lower funding to them in each year’s State Budget.  It would be a shame – a crime – if misleading statistics are used to justify policies which will not improve the lives and the futures of the excluded majority: women, children, farmers and the rural poor.

Iha Parlamentu nia odamatan metin nia kotuk

Link to this article in English.

Parlamentu Nasional Timor-Leste halo debate ba proposta Orsamentu Estadu 2016, ho nia total biliaun $1.56. Infelizmente, diskusaun subtantivu hosi proposta alterasaun ne’e hala’o iha Komisaun Eventual ida ne’ebé taka ba públiku no media. Ho esforsu atu hatán ba obstákulu ba iha prosesu lejizlativa ida ne’ebé demokrátiku ida ne’e, La’o Hamutuk fahe alterasaun sira ne’ebé Deputadu/a sira hatama. Atu hatene informasaun atualizadu liu kona-ba dokumentu proposta orsamentu 2016 iha Ingles no Tetum, bele kliik iha ne’e.

Membru Parlamentu sira aprezenta proposta alterasaun liu limanulu, inklui proposta barak ne’ebé muda menus hosi 0.2% (tokon $3) orsamentu estadu na’in hosi liña ida ba liña seluk. La'o Hamutuk lista tiha proposta alterasaun iha tabela ida no scan tiha testu sira hosi Portuguese iha file rua -- alterasaun ba Fundu Infrastrutura no alterasaun seluk nian.

Proposta alterasaun tolu sei kria foun ka drastikamente sei modifika instituisaun estadu sira. Alterasaun ba lei orsamentu tinan fiskál ida nian ne’ebé lalais no halo ho segredu la’ós dalan furak ida atu halo buat ida ne’e, nune’e mudansa rua primeiru iha okos ne’e mai duni ho intensionál loloos:

• Alterasaun 9, hosi Pedro Costa no Paulino Monteiro, sei kria Komisaun Akompanhamentu Permanente ida atu monitoriza projetu sira ho valor liu tokon $50.
  
  
• Alterasaun 25, hosi Osorio Florindo, atu kria Fundu ida ba Manutensaun Estrada hodi fornese fundu no seguru ba manutensaun estrada, ponte no infrastrutura sira seluk ne’ebé sei iha relasaun.
  
  
• Alterasaun 54-59, hosi lider sira hosi CNRT, Fretilin, no Frente Mudansa, sei disolve Fundu Infrastruktura nudár Fundu Espesiál ida no muda ba “fundu autónoma” ida ne’ebé sei kontrola hosi Primeiru Ministru no Ministru Planeamentu no Ministru Obras Públiku nian. Mudansa ne’e hasai tiha lista projetu sira ne’ebé finansia hosi Fundu Infrastrutura hosi lei orsamentu (hanesan hatudu iha liman loos), hodi tau tiha tokon $377 ka ¼ hosi orsamentu tomak iha liña orsamentál ketak ida.
      Maski buat ne’e hamenus tiha espesifidade, transparénsia no kontabilidade ho momoos, maibé nia implikasaun seluk seidauk klaru. Mudansa ida ne’e sei elimina Livru 6 Orsamentu nian iha tinan sira oin mai, muda tiha informasaun públiku sira ne’ebé iha valor kona-ba implementasaun projetu bo-boot sira, nia planu no nia kustu sira. Ami mós seidauk hatene oinsá mudansa ida ne’e bele afeita ba prosesu jestaun fiskál no aprovizionamentu nian.

Maioria proposta alterasaun lubuk seluk ne’e atu kria programa foun ki’ik, aumenta osan ba fundu ne’ebé iha ona, ka muda programa hosi ajénsia ida ba ajénsia seluk. Alterasaun balu boot no interesante liu mak hanesan:

• Muda tokon $8.0 hosi ZEESM atu harii no reabilita eskola sira
• Aumenta tokon $2.6 ba farda PNTL no tokon $0.3 ba motorizada PNTL
• Aumenta tokon $2.0 ba Fundu Seguransa Ai-han
• Muda tokon $2.0 hosi infrastrutura estrada atu harii no reabilita sentru saúde lokál sira
• Gasta tokon $1.8 atu harii Igreja Pároku Sao Francisco Xavier iha Hatolia
• Aumenta tokon $1.4 ba kontratu foun ba juis internasionál no asesór jurídiku sira
• Aumenta tokon $1.1 atu remata harii eskritóriu tolu tribunal distritál nian
• Gasta tokon $0.8 atu hamoos drainajen no baleta sira iha sidade sira, no tokon $0.6 seluk atu marka enderesu sira.
• Aloka tokon $0.5 ba turizmu komunitária no tokon $0.6 ba sentru informasaun turistiku nian.
• Muda Tour de Timor no atividade ne’ebé hanesan ba Ministériu Turizmu
• Hari monumentu ida ho tokon $0.75 atu komemora Masakre 12 Novembru, no tokon $0.1 ba monumentu veteranu sira iha Lautem
• Aumenta tokon $0.65 atu suporta reintegrasaun membru F-FDTL na’in 26 ne’ebé reforma ona
• Aumenta tokon $0.45 atu suporta klube futeból “Liga Amadora” nian
• Fundu adisionál ki’ik ba Defensór Públiku, CAC, PDHJ, Prokurador Jerál no Polísia Investigasaun
• Deputadu Antonino Bianco fó proposta alterasaun hitu atu ko’a besik tokon $13 hosi Ministériu Finansas no Dotacao Todo Governu nian, inklui servisu finanseiru no legal nian, viajen estranjeiru, manutensaun ekipamentu, auditoria external no postu fronteira sira.

La’o Hamutuk sei kontinua atu tuir prosesu ida ne’e, no ami apresia ba informasaun sira hosi fontes tomak. Ami mós enkoraja povu no instituisaun sira ho informasaun ka opiniaun kona-ba asuntu sira ne’e atu kontaktu Membru Parlamentu sira. Tuir sira nia kalendáriu, Komisaun Eventual sei remata sira nia servisu iha semana ne’e no aprezenta relatóriu konsensu ida hosi alterasaun tomak ne’ebé sira konkorda hodi haruka ba Plenária Parlamentár nian iha Segunda-Feira, 14 Dezembru. Parlamentu sei halo votasaun espesialidade ba kada ministériu no artigu iha Lei Orsamentu, no espera atu halo aprovasaun final iha 21 Dezembru.

Prezidente Taur Matan Ruak hateten katak nia sei veto ba lei orsamentu karik lei ne’e la apropriadu liu ba prioridade estadu nian hanesan saúde, edukasaun, agrikultura no infrastrutura rural. Karik nia veto no haruka lei ne’e fila fali ba Parlamentu, Deputadu/a sira bele halo alterasaun ka vota afavor kontra Prezidente nia veto ho votu 2/3 hosi Deputadu/a ne’ebé partisipa. Karik Lei Orsamentu ne’e labele promulga molok hahú tinan 2016, atividade estadu nian sei finansia tuir sistema “Duodecimal” ba fulan ida ka rua. iha kazu hanesan ne’e, kada ajénsia bele gasta 1/12 hosi nia alokasaun kada fulan nian durante 2015.

Laiha proposta alterasaun ne’ebé sériu hodi preokupa ba frajilidade tebes no naun sustentável ekonomia Timor-Leste nian, kansela ka adia projetu “elefante mutin” hanesan ZEESM no Tasi Mane, ka investe iha Timor-Leste nia rekursu umanu ba futuru. Maski hanesan ne’e, iha sujestaun balu ba alterasaun nian ne’ebé hahú atu preokupa ba asuntu sira ne’ebé foin temi, maibé ami dezaponta katak Parlamentu la diskute alterasaun sira ne’e ho nakloke ba públiku. Dala ruma sira sei halo iha tinan oin mai…

Ba informasaun tan kona-ba orsamentu 2016, hare La’o Hamutuk nia website ka  Submisaun kona-ba Proposta Orsamentu Estadu 2016 no blog Proposta Orsamentu 2016 prioritiza liu fantasia duke povu nia nesesidade.

Update, 15 Dezembru. Komisaun Eventual aprezenta sira nia relatóriu konsensus nian ba Parlamentu iha 15 Dezembru. Sira simu atu muda Fundu Infrastrutura maibé rejeita alterasaun naun finanseiru sira seluk. Total envelope orsamentál nafatin la muda, maibé maizumenus tokon $30 mak muda hosi liña ida ba liña seluk, maioria mudansa ida ne’e mai hosi poupansa ne’ebé ita antisipa ona hosi presu kombustivel ba jeradór nian ne’ebé tun.

Behind Parliament's closed doors

Liga ba artigu ida ne'e iha Tetum

Timor-Leste's Parliament is debating the proposed State Budget for 2016, which totals $1.56 billion. Unfortunately, substantive discussion of proposed amendments is taking place in an Ad-Hoc Committee (Komisaun Eventual/KE) which is closed to the public and the media. In an effort to overcome this obstacle to democratic legislative process, La'o Hamutuk is sharing the Deputies' submitted changes. For more and updated information on documents on the proposed 2016 State Budget in English and Tetum, click here.

Members of Parliament presented more than fifty proposed amendments, including many which move less than 0.2% ($3 million) of the budget from one line to another.  La'o Hamutuk has listed the proposed amendments in a table and scanned their Portuguese-language text in two files -- amendments to the Infrastructure Fund and other amendments.

Three of the amendments create new or drastically modify state institutions. A rushed, secret alternation of one year's state budget law is not the best way to do this, even though the first two appear to be well-intentioned:

• Amendment 9, from Pedro Costa and Paulino Monteiro, creates a Permanent Parliamentary Committee to monitor projects whose value is more than $50 million.
• Amendment 25, from Osorio Florindo, creates a Fund for Road Maintenance to providing funding and assurance for the maintenance of roads, bridges and related infrastructure.
• Amendments 54-59 from leaders of CNRT, Fretilin and Frente Mudansa, would dissolve the Infrastructure Fund (IF) as a Special Fund and reinvent it as an "autonomous fund" controlled by the Prime Minister and the Ministers of Planning and Public Works. The change removes the list of IF-financed projects from the Budget Law (as shown at right), compressing $377 million -- a quarter of the entire budget -- to a single line item.
       Although the injury to specificity, transparency and accountability are obvious, other implications are unclear. It could eliminate Budget Book 6 in future years, removing valuable public information on major project implementation, plans and costs. We also do not know how this will affect fiscal management and procurement processes, as it has not been discussed publicly.

Most other proposed amendments create some small new programs, add to existing funding, or shift programs from one agency to another. A few of the larger and more interesting are:

• Shift $8.0 million from ZEESM to build and rehabilitate school buildings
• Add $2.6m for PNTL uniforms and $0.3m for PNTL motorcycles
• Add $2.0m to the Food Security Fund to address effects of El Nino/Climate Change.
• Shift $2.0m from road infrastructure to build and rehabilitate local health centers
• Spend $1.8m to build the Sao Francisco Xavier parish church in Hatolia
• Add $1.4m for new contracts for foreign judges and judicial advisors
• Add $1.1m to finish building three district court buildings
• Spend $0.8m to clean drains and sewers in cities, and another $0.6m on road signs
• Allocate $0.5m for community tourism and $0.6m for a Touristic Information Center
• Move the Tour de Timor and similar activities to the Ministry of Tourism
• Build a $0.75m monument to commemorate the 12 November massacre, and $0.1m for a veterans' monument in Lautem
• Add $0.65m to support 26 families of long-term FALINTIL members
• Add $0.45m to support "Liga Amadora" football clubs
• Small additional funding for the Public Defender, CAC, PDHJ, Prosecutor General and Investigation police. 
• Deputado Antoninho Bianco proposed seven amendments to cut nearly $13 million from the Ministry of Finance and Whole of Government, including financial and legal services, overseas travel, equipment maintenance, external audits and border posts.

La'o Hamutuk will continue to follow this process, and we welcome information from all sources. We also encourage people and institutions with information or opinions on these issues to contact Members of Parliament. According to their schedule, the Komisaun Eventual will finish its work this week and present a consensus report of all accepted amendments to the Parliamentary Plenary on Monday, 14 December. Parliament will vote specifically on each ministry and article in the Budget Law, and hopes to give final approval on 21 December.

President Taur Matan Ruak has said he will not sign the budget law if it does not appropriate more for the Government's stated priorities of health, education, agriculture and rural infrastructure. If he vetoes and sends the law back to Parliament, they could amend it or pass it over his veto by vote of 2/3 of the Members present. If the Budget Law is not promulgated before the start of 2016, state activities will be funded under the "duodecimal" fall back system for a month or two. In that case, each agency can spend 1/12 of its 2015 appropriations each month.

None of the proposed amendments seriously address the fundamental fragility and non-sustainability of Timor-Leste's economy, cancel or delay the "white elephant" ZEESM and Tasi Mane projects, or invest enough in Timor-Leste's human resources for the future. Nevertheless, some of the suggested changes begin to get at these issues, and we are disappointed that they are not being discussed in public. Perhaps next year...

For more on the 2016 budget, see La'o Hamutuk's website or blogs Submission on proposed 2016 State Budget and 2016 budget proposal puts fantasies before people's needs.
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Update, 15 December. The  Komisaun Eventual presented its consensus report to Parliament on 15 December. They accepted the redesign of the Infrastructure Fund but rejected the other non-financial amendments. The total budget envelope is unchanged, but around $30 million has been moved to other lines, mostly from anticipate savings from lower generator fuel prices.