As mandated in the Council of Ministers meeting and in accordance  with the main objective of the Committee to coordinate and inspect all steps of the donation process, the Donation Committe along with a number of staff  from the Ministry of Health discussed and defined the next steps of donation, the assets inventory,  the procedures and the observances to be complied with.

One of the main points raised in the discussion was the suggestion by the Chairman of the Committee on human resources including the urgent necessity to  train the government staff in order for them to achieve the level of skills required for the functioning of the UNMIT services to be maintained, for instance managing the medical clinics and the storerooms, as well as the capacity of the government to absorb the national staff who are currently working for the UNMIT. The Chairman of the Committee emphasized that the government intends to obtain not only the assets but also to adopt the operating systems and procedures for these assets, comprising of organization, methodology, the knowledge and professionalism of UNMIT. This will require good  coordination between the GOTL and the UNMIT to train and stregthen the capacity of the government staff.

After the meeting, the committee visited the warehouses  of the UNMIT  and the equipments  to be donated, consisting of the medical clinic, the Geographic Information Services (GIS), the workshops,  the storerooms for office stattionary and the Communication and Information Technology Section. The itinerary agenda of this visit did not include the visit to the airport and this will be carried out by the the Director General of the Transports and Telecommunication of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Mr. Fernando da Cruz, in due time.

The priority of the Committee is to ensure rigorous and correct distribution of the assets in accordance with the real needs of the requesting agencies. It is importat to ensure that these requesting government agencies  have the capability in terms of financial and human resources to maintain these assets and utilize their capacity to the fullest.

Statement of KOTA by Manuel Tilman

Tilman pointed out that Timor Leste is a pluralistic society which has many ethnic groups and languages, and religious, therefore it requires capable leadership to adopt and implement democratic values in their policy and decision making. TL has abundant natural resources that have to be properly utilized for the well being of the nation and people. The PF money has to be properly invested for the development of the country and not to spend it without expected results. This government has spent around $5 Billion over the past 5 years but has achieved little. Despite recognizing that the electricity sector has absorbed $ 1 Billion and has set up the Power Plant, Tilman regretted that blackouts continue happening. He also regrets that other sectors are underdeveloped, for instance the education sector, in particular the school feeding program that remains daunting and problematic. Moreover he said that many schools are in poor condition and do not have facilities to operate properly. In the health sector, he said that there is lack of hospitals and medicines to respond to the needs of the people.

Therefore he suggests to have more integrated and balanced development process between sectors and regions to pave the way for achieving economic growth and social justice. He also said that mutual respect and respect for the natural resources are important to ensure sustainable development.

Teresa (ASDT) disagreed with the policy of 1 year pension for civil servants, because it is far from enough and is really unfair as comparing to other countries like Portugal which is currently providing entire life pension for its former civil servants.  Teresa also questioned about the condition and construction of road route Maubise- Turiskai with the budget amount of $500,000 in  2011 that  has only started but has never finished the work.

Joao Adriano (PD) concerned that the Commission for Veterans has not performed as required. He alleged that some members of this committee tend to choose their family members, friends, instead of those that really meet the criteria.

Natalino Santos (CNRT) was deeply concerned about the dengue fever spreading out in the territory and is becoming a tremendous threat to the people’s life. Unfortunately the national hospital is facing lack of medicines to cope with it. The problem is being deteriorated by the overload of the Dili National hospital and the growing number of patients who are seeking treatment assistance. He suggested the MoH to coordinate with the private clinics to overcome the problem.

Commenting on the criticism of Manuel Tilman on the Central Power, Natalino appealed to look at the situation from the perspective of proportionality, positive thinking and patience. This AMP government has made many and extraordinary achievements, so it is not true if Tilman says that the government has only achieved little with lots of budgets. He hopes that KOTA will win the elections and do much more than AMP without flaws.

Mateus Jesus (independent) informed that the Kailaku bridge is damaged and not passable. Also the road route Maubise- Turiskai has not finished yet. Mateus regretted that the emergency road works are being concentrated during the dry season instead of wet season as people expected. According to his recent experience some roads are repaired under initiative of local communities, hence any traveler trespassing in the area has to pay certain fees to be allowed to pas. He also informed that the road Ermera-Letefoho was repaired in 2009 with $900,000 but was only finished 50%; in 2011 another amount of $500,00 was allocated but only achieved half of the volume. The road Railaku-Gleno was rehabilitated in 2011 with $250,000 but the quality of project is bad. In 2011 a budget of $450,000 was allocated for the rehab of  Leboloa bridge but it has never been not executed.

Augusto Tara suggested that the roads upgrading (widening) is important to facilitate the population’s movement, however he suggested to have dissemination and consultation process with local communities prior its commencement  to avoid certain misperceptions of people.

Inacio Moreira stated that the rehab of roads during the wet season is futile and just wasting money like what is happening in front of the Dili Port. He also criticized the mini-markets which are constructed closed to the roads are causing traffic problems in many places. Regarding government debts totaled $54.1 million, he said that it is result of conspiracy and inefficiency. The worst is that to overcome debts in PNTL, the SES is reducing the ration budget to reimburse /pay off the debts.

Teresa (PSD) informed that she had bad experience when she travelled from Baucau to Dili, during which groups of vandals and criminals are operating during night time in deserted areas. She asked the government to intensify the PNTL/security operations and capture the criminals.

Adriano Nascimento (PD) said that despite some technical weaknesses due to lack of capable human resources, the  AMP government has started strategic development projects and made significant accomplishments. Regarding veterans issues he said that he is afraid that some people are using the opportunity to create factions within the veterans and later destroying the veterans and ultimately creating instability. Concerning government debts he suggests not to only blaming the AMP government because the country is learning by doing; he hopes that the future government will be able to resolve it or avoid it before such kind of mal practices are institutionalized by certain interests groups. That is homework for all Timorese, in particular the future government.

Rui Menezes addressed the statement of Manuel Tilman and appealed not to use the Parliament as a ground for personal campaign interest. Responding to the criticism on the quality of roads, he defended that all or most of the roads projects are designed and constructed by Timorese and not foreigners, in accordance with their knowledge and skills that they have.  Therefore, he said, if the technology applied by these Timorese engineers and contractors and the quality of its results does not comply with the expected quality standards or do not respond to the typology and condition of the soil in TL, he hopes that the future government, in particular those who always criticizes the AMP government will have better expertise to overcome the TL typically fragile soil as depicted above.  Regarding government debts, Rui said that the current “systems” being applied is one of the root cause of debts.