The Subsidy for Support of Elders and Invalids was created by the IV Constitutional Government which approved its attribution in the Council of Ministers meeting on the 23rd of April of 2008, carrying out one of the short term priorities established in its program. The first payment was backdated to the beginning of the year. At the time, 16 million American dollars were attributed for this purpose. The first list of beneficiaries was comprised of 66 799 persons, each one having the right to receive 20 american dollars, per month. The payment was made.
Still in 2008, the Ministry of Social Solidarity (of which the Secretariat of State for Social Security is a part of) began to gather data regarding the beneficiaries. The number of candidates went up to 75 thousand.
The collection of information continues in 2009. With the data verification, the teams started detecting some irregularities, such as document forging to prove the right to the subsidy, admissible until the end of 2008. At the registration act, each candidate had to show his/her electoral card. If they could not present this document, they had to present the Timorese passport or the former united nations card, used for the popular consultation in 1999, the civil registration certificate or the baptism certificate. In the case the candidate didn’t have any of these documents, the law still gave the possibility to use a declaration from the suco or village Chief. “With so many options, some persons easily forget documents” concludes Vítor da Costa. Because of that, the Government defined in 2008, with the Decree-Law n.o 19, that creates the subsidy, that from 2009, only the electoral card can be proof for the candidature to the subsidy.
The data verification teams concluded that the number of candidates was inflated. From the total registered persons, in 2009, 62,701 subsidies were initially paid. However 20,959 cases were pending, because of lack of valid documentation, which, after being verified, resulted in the payment of 9,974 beneficiaries more. The teams from the National Direction for Social Security, still had doubts about the real situation of the cases initially approved and verified them all again. As a result, of the 62,701 beneficiaries, 17,781 cases didn’t have the proof demanded by law, or in other words, there were irregularities regarding the voter card.
In a new attempt to find out the real number of beneficiaries, one more data verification was done, this time by teams (that went to all sucos) composed of technicians from the Ministry of Social Solidarity, from the Ministry of Health and from the Electoral Administration Technical Secretariat. Of the 17,781 candidates that possessed the necessary documentation only 5,078 appeared to present proof of their right to the subsidy. “Because of that, this year, those who didn’t come to the readjustment – more than 11 thousand candidates didn’t come – are still complaining because their names are not in the beneficiaries list”. But the Law predicts the loss of the right to the subsidy if the documents are not presented when they are requested. Several complaints have arrived to us, many of which were already analysed and properly explained to some of the suco Chiefs, says the Secretary of State for Social Security.