4.5 Legal readiness for implementing an OSS

The legislation supporting decentralization and implementation of the OSS is the following:

1. Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste

The Constitution invokes the principle of administrative decentralization in Timor-Leste stating that “the State shall respect, in its territorial organisation, the principle of decentralisation of the Public Administration” .

Although Articles 5(2) and 71(4) leave the political and administrative organization of the territory to the law, the Constitution itself sets out the essential features of territorial decentralization at local level. Article 65 (1) states that elected bodies of sovereignty and local government shall be chosen through universal, free, direct, secret, personal and periodic suffrage, and in section 72.1 of the Constitution, it is stated that the local government is made up of territorial collective bodies endowed with representative bodies, with the objective of organizing the participation of citizens in solving their community's problems and to promote local development. The principle of the Timorese Public Administration is enshrined in the article 137 of the Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, which reads: "(1) The Public Administration shall aim to pursue the public interest, with respect for the legitimate rights and interests of citizens and constitutional institutions. (2) The Public Administration shall be structured so as to avoid bureaucratization, bring services closer to the people, and ensure the participation of stakeholders in its effective management. (3) The law establishes the rights and guarantees of the administrators, namely against acts that harm their rights and legitimate interests."27

2. VIII Constitutional Government Programme

The VIII Constitutional Government dedicates chapter six to the administrative deconcentration and administrative decentralization processes28 .

3. Law No. 11/2009, of 7 October, which approves the administrative division of the territory, amended by Law No. 4/2016, of 25 May and by Law 14/2021, of 7 July

In this sense we refer to Law No. 11/2009, of 7 October, which approves the administrative division of the territory, amended by Law No. 4/2016, of 25 May and by Law 14/2021, of 7 July, and the requirements for the creation, modification and extinction of administrative districts, the balance of potential and resources for development and the consideration of geographical, demographic, economic, social, cultural, and administrative factors or interests of national and regional or local order.

27 Constitution of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, 2002

28 Program of the Eighth Constitutional Government, Timor-Leste

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4. Law no. 23 /2021 of November 10 - Local Power and Administrative

Decentralization Law

This law establishes the organization, composition, and powers of local government bodies, as well as the legal framework for the administrative decentralization of the state, and defines a municipality as a public corporate body, with population and territory, endowed with administrative, financial, patrimonial, and organizational autonomy, and representative bodies that aim to pursue the interests of the respective populations, as a factor of national cohesion (Article 2). Article 7 provides the precept of deconcentration, under which the municipality must bring its administration closer to the population, organizing the services in such a way that they have decision-making capacity at the level of administrative posts. Article 19 introduces the Principle of Administrative Decentralization, which states that the distribution of attributions between the central administration and the municipalities need the implementation of public administrative interests of a predominantly municipal nature.

5. Law No. 22 / 2021 of November 4, the Municipal Electoral Law

Given the constitutional precepts mentioned above, and in this framework, the National Parliament approved the Law No. 22 / 2021 of November 4, the Municipal Electoral Law, which regulates the elections of the heads of municipal bodies in a concise, coherent and well-grounded manner, in line with the reality of the country.

6. Decree-Law No. 2 / 2016 of March 16 that approves the Statute of Presidents of Municipal Authorities and of Municipal Administrators

With the present decree-law, the Government of Timor-Leste establishes a proper and adequate statute for the exercise of the functions of Municipal Authority’s President and the Municipal Administrator, aware that with the appreciation and recognition of the uniqueness of the exercise of their respective functions, a more qualified, efficient, and effective local Administration will advance more rapidly in the provision of public goods and services, capable of boosting the local development process.

7. Decree-Law No. 3/2016, of March 16, on the "Statute of Municipal Administrations, Municipal Authorities and the Interministerial Technical Group for Administrative Decentralization"29

With the approval of the Decree-Law No. 3/2016, of March 16, on the "Statute of Municipal Administrations, Municipal Authorities and the Interministerial Technical Group for Administrative Decentralization", in its current wording, it is defined that the process of Administrative Decentralization and Installation of the Representative Bodies of Local Power is to develop in phases starting with administrative deconcentration, which will be followed by the establishment of the local power through municipality election.

29 Decree-Law no 3/2016 of March 16, republished by Decree-Law no. 9/2018, amended by Decree-Law no. 54 /2020 of 28 October and by Decree-Law no. 4/2022 of 12 January

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The Territorial Administrative Deconcentration process is also framed in the aforementioned Decree-Law, through the establishment of interorganic administrative contracts that: 1. aim to ensure the delegation of powers of Central Government bodies to Local Government bodies

2. through the autonomization of the annual budgets of Municipal Authorities and Municipal Administrations in relation to the annual budgets of Central Government bodies and services, and 3. through the deconcentration of powers in local government bodies for the practice of acts of management and execution of the respective budgets.

8. Government Resolution No. 11 /2019 of March 1330

The Government Resolution No. 11 /2019 of March 13 approving the implementation of the Administrative Decentralization Strategy and the installation of Representative Bodies of Local Government, defines the will of the VIII Constitutional Government to continue the process of modernizing the public administration and raising its effectiveness and efficiency, which necessarily includes its deconcentration and decentralization, through the transfer of responsibilities, powers and duties to local and municipal bodies, empowering them and creating conditions for them to provide quality services. Whereas the Program of the VIII Constitutional Government foresees the continuity of the execution of the administrative decentralization strategy, namely through the revision of the legal framework regarding the organization and functioning of Municipal Authorities and Municipal Administrations; the attribution of legal personality, administrative and financial autonomy and its own patrimony to the Municipal Authority of Ermera and the Municipal Administrations of Aileu and Liquiçá; the presentation to the National Parliament of legislative initiatives regarding Local Government and administrative decentralization; the election of representative bodies of Local Government, municipal finances, patrimony and procurement; and the status of human resources assigned to the Local Government.

9. Government Resolution No. 45 /2020 of December 9 which approves the implementation of the strategy of administrative decentralization and installation of the representative organs of the Local Government

In order to maintain the timeliness, suitability and feasibility of the main policy objectives set out in the Government Resolution No. 11/2019 of 13 March, namely to initiate the transition to institutional and territorial administrative decentralization, this Government Resolution reschedules the actions and the strategic and operational objectives set out in that resolution to add a new action program for the identification and mapping of human resource needs in the services of Municipal Administrations and Authorities and the promotion of the definition and description of functions and responsibilities for certain positions, and approves the conversion of the Ermera Municipal Authority and the Municipal Administrations of Aileu and Liquiçá into legal persons governed by public law, with administrative and financial autonomy and their own assets, among others.

30 Government Resolution No. 11 /2019 of March 13 Implementation of the Administrative Decentralization Strategy and Installation of Representative Organs of Local Government of Local Government

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