The Anti – Corruption Commission (CAC), through its various directorates carried out series of activities during the months of September and October 2011. These activities were in continuation of efforts to reach out and educate Timorese public on the Commission’s activities and the evils of corruption, while preventing and investigate corrupt activities throughout Timor – Leste.
ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION (CAC) INSPECTS BORDER AREA
On its way to Oecusse on 12 October 2011, the CAC pay a courtesy call on the Departments of Customs and Immigration and Border Police (UPF) assigned in the Mota-Ain, Batugade border areas. The intent of the brief stopover was to ascertain conditions at the border crossing and to inspect functions of government funded facilities and employees. Commissioner Adérito Soares led his Deputy for Prevention Manuel Bucar and other staff on the visit which coincided with TV Timor – Leste team who covered the Commission’s brief stay at the border.
During his interactions, Commissioner Aderito and his team familiarized themselves with actual information about the Customs responsibilities in Mota-Ain. In his briefing on some of the facilities, Mr. Mario Soares of Customs said the electronic X-ray equipment for scanning of goods has not function for about three months. He said it was really difficult to verify the worth of goods exported and imported items on the market. He added that based on the work hour in Batugade Border Control which opens at 8 am and closes at 5 pm; it is very difficult for customs to control vehicle’s movement at night.
Mr. Mario Soares said government cars used by Timorese leaders request facilitation at border crossing. He added that this incident has violated procedures that have been established between the two countries and measures need to be taken by a competent authority. This happens because there is poor coordination with UPF. The negative effect of this, results in the inability to justify goods that come in to TL.
At Immigration, Commissioner Adérito discovered that there was poor working condition and this was affective services. Work space is not sufficient to accommodate the current staff.
WORKSHOPS IN DILI AND OTHER DISTRICTS
On 27 September 2011, the Prevention directorate of CAC conducted a 1 – day corruption prevention workshop for staff of the Ministry of Health. The workshop brought together 215 participants from the Health Ministry. The Minister and Vice-Minister of were in attendance all through to demonstrate their commitment and to encourage other staff to take the CAC workshop seriously. Similar workshop was conducted for the staff of the Ministry of Trade, Commerce and Industry (MTCI) on 25 of October. The Minister of Trade Commerce and Industry was also in attendance.
Workshops were also conducted in Covalima District on September 20, 2011, Bobonaro District on September 22, 2011, and Oeccusse District on October 13, 2011. The objective of those workshops intended to introduce CAC law implementation and other documents related to CAC’s work; to create a control method in the workplace to eliminate corrupt practices.
Actual information collected by the commission was that many staff lacked the knowledge in identifying types of corruption such as embezzlement and other corrupt activities that can indicate abuse of power in an institution. Through these workshops the commission got the following outputs:
a) For CAC:
– Guarantee CAC’s existence in an institution that has identified corruption risk.
– Properly transfer information about CAC’s law/s and other legal documents
– Find actual information from participants and identify new methods to reduce corruption.
– Decide on new strategies for the program or future activities and assign actual information for CAC.
b) For staff:
– Find right information about CAC law and other legal documents
– To have strong concept to implement combat Corruption and to gain good methods to prevent effective Corruption.
THE EDUCATION DIRECTORATE LAUNCH A RESEARCH REPORT
On October 20, 2011, the Education directorate, campaign and research launch a research report on the movement of government vehicles and the use of government fuel coupons. The research was carried out through surveillance in two fuel stations over the period of two months. The participants at this launching were the General Director and National Director from all Government institutions and also members of Minister of Agriculture and fishers.
On the monitoring result for government vehicle movement during 14 days research, Sub-Directorate identified 35,057 vehicles. Of this number, 33% with movement on Saturdays and Sundays and 67% during work days. The Government vehicle identified, based on the plate number register, showed that the frequencies of using those cars in some areas appear nine times and many appear 20 to 36 times. The commission really worries about these movements and frequencies and found one car with plate number 03.366 which had 64 (times) movements in two weeks.
The observation for government fuel coupons in two weeks in two fuel stations (Aitula and Eto) which provides government fuel, show that out of 5,488 cars that use this fuel, 51% is used for private vehicles, 45% for government vehicle sand 4% had no plate numbers.
THE COMMISSION’S ROLE IN THE INVESTIGATION PART.
The commission’s role in the investigation is contained in Part 2, Article 5 of CAC Law No. 8/2009; is to give major competence to investigators to do work with quality and sustainability for cases that are investigated.
During March until October, investigation directorate has concluded nine investigations out of twenty orders requested by the Prosecutor Office. There were some cases that DI automatically/directly reported to MP and received complaints from the public, communities and other government staff.
Some orders from Prosecutor Office MP were cases investigated by them and some were results from direct reports that investigators submitted previously.
Dili, Timor – Leste On Wednesday, 25 January 2012, the Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission (CAC) Aderito de Jesus Soares convened a meeting to inform and update national stakeholders on the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) Self-Assessment Review process and the need to draft a national strategy for combating corruption. Among those in attendance were Prosecutor General, Ana Maria Pessoa, PNTL Second Commander in Chief, Afonso de Jesus, Inspector General, Francisco de Carvalho, representatives from Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dili and Baucau District Courts, the National Human Rights Commission (PDHJ), the Central Bank and civil society representatives included La’o Hamutuk, Luta Hamutuk, Justice System Monitoring Program (JSMP) and the HAK Foundation.
