The Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Fidelis Manuel Leite Magalhães, participated, on November 20th, 2020, on behalf of the Government, in the presentation and delivery of the Monitoring Report on Fixed Term Contracts in Public Administration, prepared by the Ombudsman for Rights Human Rights and Justice (PDHJ – acronym in Portuguese). The ceremony took place in the Ministry of Justice’s auditorium, in Dili.
This report was carried out within the scope of the PDHJ powers, regarding the supervision of public authorities and advice on any matter relating to Good Governance. PDHJ analysed the application of the legal framework for fixed-term contracts by the Public Administration. The fixed-term contracts of 17 institutions of the State’s direct and indirect administration were verified, and a total of 315 hired professionals were identified in these organizations, of which 243 are national, 72 are international and 7 PDHJ was unable to determine.
The Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, in his speech, stated that “the Government will carefully analyse the Report presented and delivered today, and will not fail to take due account of its conclusions and recommendations, within the scope of the efforts already underway for the modernization of the State and Public Administration’s necessary reforms, in particular, and for the effective improvement of the legality, transparency, efficiency and effectiveness of Public Administration”.
Fidelis Magalhães stressed that “the Government is making efforts to move forward with relevant Institutional Reforms, in the field of Public Administration, Tax and Financial Reform and Judicial Reform, as well as in the process of Decentralization of State powers”.
The Minister guaranteed that the issue of hired employees was taken into account in the Public Administration Reform Program, whose coordination is currently guaranteed by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and that “aims to strengthen the cost-benefit ratio in the employment of civil servants and consistency in payment levels”.
This program also intends to establish “reinforced targets and controls to guarantee the viability of salaries, to reinforce motivation and to attract and retain talent”. “The use of contracts in public service will be more consistent, and a robust job management system will be put in place, where jobs are fixed based on the volume of work,” he added.