MSA aims to improve the quality of regional development programs
The Minister of State, Coordinating Minister of State Administration Affairs and Justice and Minister of State Administration, Dionísio Babo Soares, met with the municipalities’ Administrators, to talk about the Process of Administrative Decentralization and Local Government in Timor-Leste.
The meeting took place in the meeting room of the Ministry of State Administration, in Díli, on June 17th, 2015, and it was attended by the Minister of Planning and Strategic Investment, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, and the Vice Minister of State Administration, Tomás do Rosário Cabral.
Dionísio Babo recalled that in the Fifth Constitutional Government, the NPDS programs - National Program for the Development of Sucos - and DDP - Decentralized Development Program - were under the Ministry of State Administration (MSA). In the Sixth Constitutional Government, they are now also under the Ministry of Planning and Strategic Investment.
The government is now preparing an amendment to Law No. 4/2012, regarding the DDP and the NPDS. But this change will affect only two aspects: the supervisory authority and the designations, with the current Districts becoming Municipalities and Sub-districts becoming Administrative Posts.
In the future it will be necessary to make a reassessment of the implementation of projects, particularly their quality, as to whether expenditures matched actual needs. Even so, the Minister acknowledges that the projects of the NPDS and DDP really benefited people living in the rural areas.
In some Sucos, there have been many works, but community leaders were not able to exercise their control for lack of engineers and technicians, that is technical teams.
"I know some people criticize the NPDS and the DDP, suggesting they stop. These people only evaluate the exterior aspect, not knowing what is happening inside. We do know", the minister defended.
The Minister of Planning and Strategic Investment, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, in his speech, said that there is a management process for the State’s works involving the institutions and public officials, "Let's see what we did good and bad in this process. The important thing for us is to recognize what is wrong so we can fix it. We are in a state-building process, institution building and improving ourselves. We are an integral part of the institutions. "
Xanana Gusmão made an appeal to the municipalities’ Administrators to raise the awareness of populations that, when there is a municipality, it must be able to manage itself and answer to people's needs.
The Prime Minister in the previous Government also drew the attention of the municipalities’ Administrators to the control that should be had of projects that are taking place in their areas of intervention, as well as integrated planning of urban developments.
Xanana Gusmão acknowledged that there are difficulties in state building. But also said the state is committed to consolidate, by making up for the errors, changing attitudes in the development process: "One day, there will be consolidation. Let’s not be too serious, nor play too much. We do not intend to teach you, but we wish to have mutual exchange of information and experiences. "
The Administrators of 12 municipalities, General Directors, National Directors, Department Heads, advisors and public officials of the Ministry of State Administration attended the meeting.
