EMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF TIMOR-LESTE

OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER

Inspector General

NEWSFLASH !

JULY 2008

National Seminar on the main duty of the Office of the Inspector/Internal Audit and Jornalism to Promote Transparent and Accountability for the Governance

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) with the Ombudsman conducted a National Seminar during 2 days, from 2 to 3 July 2008 in ETDA Comoro - Dili.

The topic of this Seminar "Main duty of the Office of the Inspector/Internal Audit and Jornalism to promote Transparent and Accountability for the Governance".

The Speakers in this Seminar were: Mr. Francisco de Carvalho, Acting Inspector General, Mr. Marito Magno, Director of Good Governance of the Ombudsman, Mr. Amandio de Sa Benevides, Deputy Ombudsman and Mr. Ivo Jose Valente, Deputy of Prosecutor General.

The objective of this Seminar to strengthen government control system in the future for transparent and accountability based on DRTL Constitution.

Participants in this Seminar were representatives from the government institutions as Inspectors, Directors, Staffs and Jornalisms.

DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF TIMOR-LESTE

OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER

Inspector General

NEWSFLASH !

APRIL 2008

Proposal to extend the role of the OIG by creating an Independent State Audit Institution

In early 2008, the Government announced it would introduce significant institutional reform so as to promote good governance and professionalism in Timor-Leste Public Administration. One of the principal initiatives is the proposal to reinforce the competence of the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) so as to assume the role of an Auditor General of the State.

By introducing this initiative, the Government of Timor-Leste have grasped with both hands a unique opportunity to clearly demonstrate to the world its' commitment to Transparency and Accountability in operational Government.

The proposed reforms to the OIG include greatly increasing its powers, and establish its responsibility to undertake audits- particularly of Government Departments and Agencies. The reporting system will be changed to guarantee independence from the Executive. This implies that the current procedure of the OIG reporting to the Prime Minister will change, and instead, will report directly to Parliament through a parliamentary committee. This has the important effect of placing an independent monitor as scrutineer of its' day to day governance program, thus separating the Government and Executive from accusation of conflict of interest, or of having inappropriate influence over operational decision making.

The Prime Minister, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao, has requested a Taskforce be established to research the issue, and report on a suggested best practice model that would help make his vision become a reality.

As part of the taskforce research, Mr Francisco de Carvalho, Interim Inspector General, and Mr Jim Sutton, UNDP Senior Adviser to the OIG, recently visited Victoria , Australia, during March as guests of the Victorian Auditor General, Mr Des Pearson.

The study tour consisted of 3 days of intensive technical briefings about the Victorian Auditor General audit model.

The briefings were delivered by the Executive of the Victorian Auditor General's Office (VAGO), including the Auditor General (Des Pearson), Chief Operating Officer (Dr Peter Frost), Assistant Auditor General - Financial Audit (Mr Andrew Greaves), Assistant Auditor General – Policy Planning & Technical (Mr John Findlay), Director Planning (Mr Peter Frouzis), Chief Finance Officer (Mr Stan Odachowski), Executive Director Corporate Services (Jenni Lillingston), and the following Senior Management : Manager, Policy, Planning and Technical (Mr Mark Spaziani), Head of Information Technology, and Communications Department

The Task Force draft report for a proposed State Audit Institution has been completed and has been submitted to Government for comment. As soon as the final model is agreed upon, we will post it on our website

WATCH THIS SPACE FOR UPDATES AS AND WHEN THEY HAPPEN !