Juvinal Dias of La'o Hamutuk is posting some curious questions with regards to the legal basis for which accusations against minister of finance Emilia Pires have been levelled.
So which part of the procurement law has Minister Pires violated? According to Juvinal, the procurement law bars state officials from awarding contracts from his ministry to immediate members of his family. In relation to the case in question however, the request to procure the goods came from the ministry of health through then vice minister Manadela Hanjam, and Hanjam is not related to Pires' husband (nor Pires I presume). And then, the funds to purchase the beds came from the Contingency Fund and this fund is controlled by the Prime Minister not the ministry of finance. The prime minister is responsible for releasing the funds and this eliminates any conflict of interest that could arise from this debacle.
The finance minister and 'darling of the international donor set' as a notable Timor-Leste observer describes her (see below), is fending off allegations of impropriety involving the award of a government contract to a company owned by her Australian husband to supply medical equipments the national hospital. The most serious of these allegations, spearheaded by the weekly Tempo Semanal, accuse her of having a role in the selection of her husband's company, Mac's Metalcraft, to supply the procured goods. Various organisations including NGOs Luta Hamutuk and LABEH, a local anti-corruption watchdog, are demanding her immediate resignation. While there is much cacophony in the local media on this issue, international media and commentators have remained mostly silent.
So which part of the procurement law has Minister Pires violated? According to Juvinal, the procurement law bars state officials from awarding contracts from his ministry to immediate members of his family. In relation to the case in question however, the request to procure the goods came from the ministry of health through then vice minister Manadela Hanjam, and Hanjam is not related to Pires' husband (nor Pires I presume). And then, the funds to purchase the beds came from the Contingency Fund and this fund is controlled by the Prime Minister not the ministry of finance. The prime minister is responsible for releasing the funds and this eliminates any conflict of interest that could arise from this debacle.
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| A clever poster produced by LABEH explaining the case against minister Pires. |
+Edward REES describes minister Pires as the 'darling of the international donor set' in a tweet:
Darling of the intl donor set, Emilia Pires, gets crunched for corruption in this expose: temposemanal.com/nasional/item/… (Tetun)
— Edward Rees (@ReesEdward) February 13, 2013
In actual fact the Contingency Fund is jointly controlled by the Ministry of Finance and the Office of of the Prime Minister.
ReplyDeleteyou are right, but please refering to Article 7 of 2011 State Budget Law.
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