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Press Release
Meeting of the Council of Ministers of August 6, 2020
The Council of Ministers met at the Government Palace, in Dili, and approved the draft Government Decree, presented by the Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak, on the measures for implementing the state of emergency declaration, made by the President of the Republic Decree n.º 55/2020, of August 5th, to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The state of emergency covers the entire national territory and will be in force between 00:00 August 6th, 2020 and 23:59 September 4th, 2020.
This Government Decree determines that all individuals who intend to enter the national territory are subject to mandatory health check and preventive isolation (quarantine) with a minimum duration of fourteen days.
It is forbidden to board in buses, ships or aircrafts, to all individuals who have any of the following symptoms: body temperature higher than 37,5o C; cough; sore throat; cold; and respiratory distress or shortness of breath, except in case of medical evacuation.
The Government Decree requires the COVID-19 testing to anyone who enters the national territory and presents any of the symptoms listed in the previous paragraph. If they are diagnosed with COVID-19, they are obliged to undergo therapeutic isolation.
Individuals who are infected with SARS-CoV-2, who enter in to national territory from overseas or who are under the supervision of health authorities will remain in compulsory confinement, for 14 days or until medical discharge, in health establishment, in their own residence or in state isolation centres.
In exceptional cases, justified by reasons of health and safety of the population, the Minister of Interior may order the temporary closure of border posts.
During the term of the state of emergency, all licenses, authorizations and other administrative acts and documents remain valid, regardless of their expiration date.
The enforcement of the present diploma ruling supervision is the responsibility of the security forces and services and of the epidemiological and health surveillance teams, and is therefore prohibited any act of active or passive resistance to the orders issued by the competent public authorities in the implementation of the state of emergency’s declaration.
The Council of Ministers approved the draft Government Resolution that amends the Government Resolution n.º 20/2019, of July 14th, which appointed the National Authority for Expo Dubai 2020. With this amendment, the National Authority for Expo Dubai 2020 is no longer under the Prime Minister authority, and will now be under the Minister of Tourism, Trade and Industry authority, which is the Government department responsible for the design, implementation, coordination and evaluation of policies, defined and approved by the Council of Ministers for the areas of tourism and commercial, industrial and economic activities.
The Council of Ministers approved the draft Government Resolution, presented by the Prime Minister, which establishes the vacancies for the promotion of personnel integrated in the public administration’ general regime careers. The vacancies for promotion are set annually by the Government, on a proposal from the Civil Service Commission, up to a limit of ten percent of the total public servants for each professional category or group.
The Council of Minister approved the draft Government Resolution, presented by the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidelis Manuel Leite Magalhães, regarding the creation of the Commission for the Coordination and Monitoring of Institutional Reforms – the reform of public administration, the reform of public financial management, administrative decentralization and judicial reform. These major institutional reforms are interconnected and have the common goal of improving the way the public sector is managed and works, and ensuring that the State works within a framework of legality and effective legal security and in a more efficient and effective manner. Thus, a coordinating commission is created, which will be responsible for establishing the reforms or programs general direction and vision, coordinating the consistent design, programming and implementation of the reforms, promoting synergies and cooperation between them, removing obstacles and overlaps, providing political support and ensuring good performance and timely implementation of the reforms. The Commission shall be chaired by the Prime Minister, assisted by the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, and integrated by the Ministers responsible for guiding the implementation of each of these reforms – Minister of Finance, Minister of Justice and Minister of State Administration.
The Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers also presented a Government Resolution draft, approved by the Council of Ministers, which amends the Government Resolution n.º 18/2019, of May 8th, on the Interministerial Commission for the Fiscal Reform and the Public Finance Management and the Government Resolution n.º 7/2019, of February 6th, on the Interministerial Commission for the Coordination and Reform of State Property Management. With this amendment, the Prime Minister no longer presides over these Commissions, allowing him to concentrate on the overall coordination of the institutional reforms, through the presidency of the Commission for the Coordination and Monitoring of Institutional Reforms. These sectoral commissions will now be led by the Ministers responsible for the respective areas.
The Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Social Solidarity and Inclusion, Mrs Armanda Berta dos Santos, did a presentation to the Council of Ministers regarding the Political and Legal Options on the Social Security Reserve Fund and Management Model. The purpose of this Fund, established by Law n.º 12/2016, of November 14th, is to ensure that, if there are fewer people to contribute and more people to benefit from (due to the population aging, with the increase in life expectancy), the social security system continues to have money to pay the benefits, without the need to ask a greater effort (contribution) to the future generations, to guarantee them the same benefits. The system is, thus, based on the principles of equality, equity, solidarity between generations and on the same generation, and public responsibility, according to the Constitution of the Republic. Options for the establishment and structure of the Fund were presented, as well as options for managing and maximizing the assets values. The options presented will be reconsidered in a future meeting of the Council of Ministers.
The Council of Ministers approved two draft Deliberations, presented by the Minister of Public Works, Salvador Soares dos Reis Pires, on the approval of the procedures for the procurement of supplements or the amendment of Public Contracts regarding the extension of the delivery period for improvement and maintenance works on road sections between Baucau and Lautém, between Maubara and Karimbala, and between Atabae and Mota Ain.
The Minister of Public Works also presented the Government Resolution draft, approved by the Council of Ministers, concerning the attribution of the name of “Nelson Mandela”, former President of the Republic of South Africa and Nobel Peace Prize winner, and a great defender of the Timor-Leste cause, to the Laleia Bridge, which joins the banks of the Laleia river, located on the A01 national road. This initiative is part of the celebrations of the Nelson Mandela International Day, which is celebrated on July 18th, the date of his birth. This year, the commemoration of this day counted with the co-presidency of the former President of the Republic of Timor-Leste and Nobel Peace Prize, José Ramos Horta, and was celebrated by the nations that participated in this event with the attribution of the name “Nelson Mandela” to a bridge, representing the work and life of this personality as a “Builder of Bridges of Humanity, of mediation, reconciliation and peace”.
The Council of Ministers decided to authorize the Exchange of Notes between the Government of Timor-Leste and the Government of Japan, for the Project for Human Resources Development Scholarship implementation. Through this program, Timorese students will attend Japanese higher education institutions.
Finally, the Council of Ministers approved the Deliberation draft, presented by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Hanjam, regarding the final ceiling for the temporary budget allocation for August 2020, whose value was set at 118 million American dollars (including the payment of loans). END