Luta Hamutuk/Yayasan HAK Accuse: "Government Using State Budget Dishonestly."

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Jornal Nacional Diario - Tuesday, 04 Setember 2012 - Translation from Tetum text

The Non Government Organizations (NGO) Yayasan HAK and Luta Hamutuk (LH) have accused the government of using the state budget dishonestly and imprudently, but also full of Corruption, Collusion and Nepotism (CCN), because when they use state funds to buy weapons for the security forces, they buy weapons that do not have quality, but to the contrary weapons that break down after being used once only.

"The Timor-Leste government uses the General Budget of the State (GBS) imprudently, without good faith and dishonestly, but full of CCN, because it fails to deliver the desired result in the end, " said Mericio Akara.

He said that it is not just the case with weapons, but that it is also the same with projects that the government gave out to private companies to perform which also did not result in quality works and was simply a waste of the peoples' money.

"This is not just with regard to weapons, but the many government projects that have been without quality," Akara said on this occasion.

He also added that as we can see with the PM2 V1 weapons that were bought for the Close Personal Security (CPS) which became unusable just after being test fired.

With regard to this Mericio Akara said that when one sets out to buy weapons, one must be aware of the condition and quality of the weapons so that the peoples' money is used to buy good quality weapons and not not to buy weapons that are counterfeit or second hand.

The Director of the NGO Luta Hamutuk also suggested that the National Parliament summon the Secretary of State for Security and the Commandant General of the Timor -Leste National Police (PNTL) Longuinhos Monteiro to clarify why it is that the peoples' money was used to buy weapons of no quality.

In relation to this issue, the Exceutive Director of Yayasan HAK Rogerio Viegas Vicente also said that, the government does not have a sound plan and management for procuring weapons.

"The weapons bought by our government were only test fired once and they broke down. This shows that there was no preparation and management. By the same token, one should not just think to buy weapons from Indonesia but then after they arrive things become like we experienced in 2006, whereby they show off buying the weapons then in the end they are lost like during the 2006 crisis and we are unable to find them afterwards," Rogerio Vicente questioned.

Rogerio also challenged the government to properly assess the advantages and disadvantages of buying weapons from Indonesia so that there is no negative impact on Timor-Leste in the future.

Tetun version: LH-Yayasan Hak Akuza: “Governu Uza Osan Estadu La Onestu”

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