4.3 Public Services

A significantportion of the population (71%) lives in rural areas -therefore the OSS solution must be usable for rural areas.

Literacy and ICT maturity level in different municipalities is uniformly low, enabling to have a similar approach to service provision in all municipalities.

A large proportion of the population lives in poverty. It is important to raise citizens' awareness of their rights and opportunities that contribute to the development of entrepreneurshipin rural areas.

Distances between rural municipality centresand villages differ, having an effect onpublic service provision.

The multiplicity of distinct language groups and dialects needstobe taken into consideration whenre-engineering and re-organizing public services, including providing information.

The Decree Law No. 6 of March 2016, on the status of the president and municipal administrators and ministries technical groups for administrative decentralization, clearly states the delegation of the authority to the municipal government. According to the law, the president and administrator together with the relevant government agencies are required to provide public services to the community. These public services are cross-sectoral and divided between central government as follows: Table 5 Cross-sectoral public services

Area

Education

Responsible Ministries

Ministry of Education

Health

Ministry of Health Food security Ministry of Social Solidarity and Inclusion Public works and transportation Ministry of Public Works and Ministry of Transport and Telecommunication Water, sanitation, environment Ministry of Public Works; Secretary of State for the Environment

Agriculture

Ministry of Agriculture Market and tourism management Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Industry Social action Ministry of Social Solidarity and Inclusion Civil protection Ministry of Home Affairs (Interior) Natural disaster management Secretariat of State for Civil Protection Civil registration and cadastre Ministry of Justice Support to NGOs and community organizations Civil Society Support and Social Auditing Service – Prime Minister’s Office

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Reflecting on the spirit of the previously mentioned decree, most of the central government agencies have started to provide services at the municipal level, but delegation of powers has not yet happened. According to the Timor-Leste Strategic Development Plan 2011-2030, there are approximately 28000 public servants, of whom 75% are men and 25% women, and of whom 19% have higher education.26

Although there have been policies on delegation of authority, and the allocation of staff and finances, the reality on the ground shows that the services available at the municipal level are still far from the expectations of the community. In fact, people really want services that are easy, fast, cheap, and available in one place, starting from the municipality, sub-district and village level. But on the other hand, the government is still unable to make it happen. The classification of public services varies from country to country, but public services are mainly categorized as follows: - General public services – provided by the public sector or an authorized party to the society without a direct request and identification of the beneficiary (i.e. public transport, public security, policy making). - Direct public service – provided by the public sector or authorized party to a specific identified person or business via a direct service contact for the purpose of gaining benefits or performing an obligation (e.g. renewal of driving licence, social benefits, business registration, etc.). During the interviews with stakeholders, the focus of services to be provided was put on direct public services. It is expected that while the organizations become more mature in the service provision and have a better understanding of the OSS’ capabilities, also other - general public services - will be getting more attention.

Key findings

Forthepublic service provider, the policy and legal requirements of decentralization are difficultto follow.

Most of the ministries have offices inthedifferent municipalitiesto provide services closer to peoples’ homes, but there is no delegation of powers yet.

26 Timor-Leste Strategic Development Plan 2011-2030 27