The Vice President of the National Parliament MP Aderito Hugo has expressed concerns with foreign citizens working as public servants across government institutions.
He added that according to Law 8/2004 of the Public Service Commission (KFP), foreign citizens are not allowed to become public servants in Timor-Leste so there is an obvious breach of the law.
“That there are foreign citizens working as public servants demonstrates poor recruitment processes,” said the Vice President at the National Parliament, Dili.
He also questioned whether the pubic service commission was even aware this is happening.
“The KFP is responsible for preventing and resolving such issues. It also needs to be aware to the conditions that need to be met for someone to be able to become a public servant. This is very important,” he added. “This issue needs to be looked into seriously.”
In response to the concerns, KFP President Commissioner Faustino Cardoso said there are some irregularities across the public service in Timor-Leste but that the KFP is currently undertaking institutional diagnostics to identify and resolve existing problems.
“We must understand that we inherited our public service from UNTAET’s time so we need to make diagnostics and keep improving,” said Commissioner Cardoso.
He added that Timor-Leste gained independence in 2002, four years after the United Nations Transitional Administration of East Timor UNTAET mission whereby many staff had been recruited in 1999 and that there is where the irregularities began.
President Cardoso added that according to the Public Service Law, a public servant must be a Timorese citizen while during UNTAET times such law did not exist.
