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Press Release
Meeting of the Council of Ministers of July 1, 2020
The Council of Ministers met at the Government Palace in Dili and approved a draft Decree-Law, presented by the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidelis Manuel Leite Magalhães, concerning the organic of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM). This law amends the organic of the PCM, following the new governmental structure and seeks to clarify the tasks of the PCM, considering its specific legal nature as a Government department, chaired by the Prime Minister, assisted by the Minister of the PCM. In order to strengthen the efficiency of the administrative action of the administrative services, the organization of the central services falls under the direction of the Director General of Administration. The experience of the Ministry of Legislative Reform and Parliamentary Affairs in the reform of the legislative procedure and in administrative innovation is reflected in the administrative reorganization of the PCM, with the creation of a Legal Support Office and an Office of Administrative Reform for the preparation and implementation of the Minister’s own powers provided for in Article 13 of the Organic Law of the Eight Constitutional Government. The same idea is the base for the autonomy as an Office, of the support service given to the ministerial functions of Government spokesperson and the strengthening of translation services throughout the Government.
The Government also approved a draft, also presented by the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, to amend the Rules of Procedure of the Council of Ministers. The revision of this Rules of Procedure aims to accommodate the reorganization of the powers of the Government members, reflecting the change to the organic of the Eight Constitutional Government. It also reviews the rules on the legislative Government procedure, considering the integration of legislative reform powers, into the Presidency of the Council of Ministers. The current Rules of Procedure seek to maintain the decisive importance of the timing of the decision to legislate, which adequately guides the legislative procedure, in this case by the reasons for that decision and through the inclusion in the Government’s legislative, assessed regularly. The new rules maintain the core of the previous regimental discipline, regarding the simplification of the legislative procedure, avoiding duplication of the intervention of interested parties at the time of the issuance of mandatory opinions and the subsequent circulation of diplomas before the scheduling in the Council of Ministers while also reinforcing the mechanisms for articulating the different contributions to the legislative procedure.
Finally, the Council of Ministers gave full powers to Finance Minister Fernando Hanjan to sign an agreement with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on a financial contribution of one million US dollars, from the Asia-Pacific Disaster Response Fund, to support the population affected by COVID-19, in particular in food security-related programs. The agreement provides for the financial contribution to be used to buy food from national farmers and to distribute it to the most vulnerable families. The program will be implemented by the United Nations in coordination with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. ENDS