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Press Release
Meeting of the Council of Ministers of July 22nd, 2020
The Council of Ministers met at the Government Palace in Dili, and continued to analyse the set of recommendations for short-term measures, for the mitigation’ first phase of the COVID-19 crisis impacts, proposed by the Committee for the Elaboration of the Economic Recovery Plan. These short-term measures have as main objectives to support the satisfaction of the ‘s basic needs, support workers from the informal sector, maintain jobs and income and keep companies in the market. The Government will continue to analyse this package of short-term measures in the next Executive meeting.
The Council of Ministers analysed the legislative policy options on the General State Budget (OGE) and Public Financial Management Law, presented by the Minister of Finance, Fernando Hanjam. Fiscal reform and public finance management is one of the VIII Constitutional Government priorities, as established in its Program, and one of the essential elements of this reform is the Law on budget and financial management’ revision, in order to improve the procurement and strengthen financial decentralization and program-based budgeting. The Government will continue to analyse this matter at a later meeting of the Council of Ministers.
The Council of Ministers approved the draft Resolution to the National Parliament Proposal, presented by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, Adaljiza Magno, for the ratification of the Air Services Agreement between the Government of Timor-Leste and the Government of Australia. This agreement aims to ensure the maximum level of international security and protection, reaffirming its serious concern for acts and threats against the safety of aircraft, which compromise the safety of people and property, adversely affect the functioning of air transport and weaken public confidence in civil aviation security. The agreement also aims to promote an international aviation system based on competition between air transport companies on the market, encouraging them to develop and implement competitive and innovative services.
Lastly, the Council of Ministers members saw two presentations from Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidelis Manuel Leite Magalhães, on program-based budgeting and on the coordination and monitorization’ mechanisms for the institutional reforms’ implementation. Program-based budgeting aims to promote the transparency in the resource’ allocation, in accordance with the national priorities, allowing to reach the expected results and establish accountability based on the outputs produced.
In relation to the institutional reforms that the Government is implementing, the goal is to improve the way the public sector is managed and functioning, as well as to ensure that the State to function within a legal and effective legal security framework, and in the most effective and efficient manner. Developed across five main areas, major institutional reforms are: public administration reforms, public finance management reforms, administrative decentralization, legislative reforms and judicial reforms. The presentation aimed to discuss the coordination’ mechanisms of the five significant reforms. As these reforms are connected and share a common goal, coordination at highest level is necessary, for their development, implementation and monitoring, namely with the establishment of a coordinating committee, which operate as a coordinating of different reforms umbrella body, presided 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. The coordinating committee will be responsible to define the direction and overview of the reforms or programs, to coordinate the consistent design, programming and implementation of the reforms, to promote synergies and cooperation between the reforms, to remove obstacles and overlaps between reforms, to provide political support for reforms and to ensure good performance and suitable implementation of the reforms. END