The Secretariat of State for Security (SES) intends to recruit 540 new police officers in 2014.
SES Secretary of State, Francisco da Costa Guterres, said the recruitment process will be done effectively and transparently according to a selection process focussed on recruiting the best candidates.
The 540 new recruits will be divided into two groups.
“The first group will attend training in Rairobo and when they complete the training the next group will start,” said SE Guterres at the National Parliament.
He said police officer recruitment needs to take place annually because the population continues to increase.
Meanwhile Member of Parliament MP, Anna da Conceição Ribeiro, from Commission B (Security, Defence and Foreign Affairs) said the National Police Timor-Leste (PNTL) needs to recruit new personnel because current numbers are not enough.
“But we need to go through a thorough selection process to ensure whoever gets recruited deserves to defend the nation,” said the MP.
National University Law Student Agio da Costa urged the government to have a good recruitment policy in place from the start and to allocate new recruits to the different PNTL units accordingly.
“So that some units don’t end up with too many officers while other units miss out.”
