A further 80 technical assistants are needed to work on National Laboratory (NasLab) projects across the country, Director Saturnino Gomes said.
He said there were many infrastructure projects underway in the municipalities and sub-districts, but only 20 technical assistants are currently employed.
“We need between 50 and 80 people more and we just have 32 people; 20 are technical assistants and the others are administration assistants and we cannot cover all the projects,” said Gomes.
Due to the lack of staff most of the NasLab team were based in Dili rather than working in rural areas and the municipalities.
MP Albina Marçal said the lack of staff on the ground was a significant obstacle and called on the Ministry of Public Works to take action.
She said it was important to have NasLab staff perform inspections to ensure that projects underway such as roads and bridges were of a good standard.
Meanwhile, community member Mateus Almeida said the lack of government control resulted in many poor quality projects.
“If there are no controls, they just do as they wish and it ends up poor of quality,” he said.
