Deputy Commissioner of the Anti-Corruption Commission José António de Jesus das Neves gave a two-hour lecture today on transparency and accountability as control mechanism in Timor-Leste at the National University of Timor-Leste (UNTL). The seminar lecture was attended by more than 60 UNTL students whom mostly from the Department of Political Science and Public Administration.
The lecture is part of the United Nations Integrated Mission in Timor’s series of organized lectures with the University to increase the students’ critical and analytical knowledge and open up their horizons on various aspects related to good governance, particularly in the context of Timor-Leste. In his lecture, Deputy Commissioner Neves highlighted some key points regarding the importance of transparency in the fight against corruption as to promote accountability and good governance in Timor-Leste. Accountability should become a control mechanism to prevent people from abuse of power and miss use of public good/ funds for private interest. Accountability could help enforce the implementation of laws and regulations and sanctions over the wrong doings.
Deputy Commissioner Neves ended his lecture with a good number of questions and answers from students. Most of the questions touched upon CAC’s role in combating corruption in Timor-Leste and what has CAC done so far in the last two years of its existence.