Annex 4. Overview of the interviews conducted in municipalities

Name of Stakeholder Ermera Municipality

Interviewee Mr. Eusebio Salsinha, The President of Municipal Authority of Ermera Mr. Pedro Paul Gomes, Administrator of Liquiçá Municipality (7 months (05.07.2021 till now)) Mr. Abel da Conceição, The Municipal Administrator of Aileu

Interviewers Ms. Carla Lopes, Mr. Papito Monteiro

Date

17.03.2022

Liquiçá Municipality Aileu Municipality

Ms. Carla Lopes, Mr. Papito Monteiro Ms. Carla Lopes, Mr. Papito Monteiro 25.03.2022 24.03.2022

OSS KEY ELEMENT: VALUE - value is driven by customer outcomes Services provided to citizens

Issuance of birth certificates, identity cards and voter cards. Issuance of birth certificates, identity cards, voter cards, and passports. Issuance of birth certificates, identity cards (by the Ministry of Justice), voter cards (by STAE/ Technical Secretariat for Election Support), collect domestic taxes (by the Ministry of Finance), issuing of Certificate of Commercial Registry of Authorization Documents for the Exercise of Economic Activity to be issued by the Aileu branch of SERVE, I.P.

Locations where the service is provided

All services are provided in the municipality centre because of the lack of human resources and facilities at the village level. All services are centralized at the municipal capital because there is no infrastructure facilities and limited human resource at subdistrict and village level.

Most ministries or government organizations have representatives at the municipal level as mandated by the Decree Law No. 3/2016. All services are provided in the Municipality Centre.

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Name of Stakeholder Services provided by the central level Services that should be provided at the municipal level Ermera Municipality Liquiçá Municipality

Issuance of passports, driving licenses, business licenses, export imports, etc. Issuance of business licenses, driving licensing, vehicle tax, export, and import licensing etc. Issuance of passports, driving licenses, licenses for public transport.

Issuance of passports, business licensing, and driving license. All services should be provided at the municipal level because of decentralization. All the competences defined in Decree-Law No 3/2016, of 16 March, which approves the Statute of Municipal Administrations, Municipal Authorities, and the Interministerial Technical Group for Administrative Decentralisation.

Service fees and collection

Most of the services are provided free of charge (Issuance of birth certificates, identity cards and voter cards.), except for application for a passport (in 1 day is 100 USD, 3 days is 75 USD and 10 days is 50 USD), as well as business licensing that is still centralized at national level. All type services are free (Issuance of birth certificates, identity cards and voter cards). Except issuance of passport. The authority of central government determines the fees. (1 day is 100 USD, 3 days is 75 USD and 10 days is 50 USD). Most of the services are provided free of fee, expect business licensing that issued by the Aileu branch of SERVE I.P.

OSS KEY ELEMENT: ACCESS - there should be multiple channels for service delivery Information about services

Clients receive information via phone, in church after Mass and from the community leaders (village council) and information boards in municipal, sub-municipal and village councils. Clear and very updated information can be obtained at the office when people visit the counter directly. The officers will leave a verbal message to fellow customers or friends, if they have returned to their home village, the officers will communicate with the village head to inform them. Through the municipality portal, media officer, community radio Tokodede (ethnic radio), church, social media, WhatsApp group and national television. Community Radio, Facebook - page of the Office of the Administrator of Aileu Municipality, local media - media center, and television. In the situation that communities do not have access to the media - in the meetings of the municipal coordination council/consultative council. The sucos’ chiefs are also asked to inform the population.

Service channels

Office, phone. The internet is very little used. Phone, Facebook, municipal portal, social media, WhatsApp group and office. The Facebook page, office, phone, local media, WhatsApp.

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Aileu Municipality

Name of Stakeholder Ermera Municipality

Physical environment for providing services Number of locations for providing services Business hours to provide services

Low speed internet and bad signal have become the main constraint to service provision. The supporting facilities are not enough to provide better and quality of service provision. Low internet speed and bad signal are also constraints. The difficulty in accessing a fast internet network and the lack of training in administrative practices and ICT of the staff deployed to support the services.

4 offices

5 days a week (8-12 am and 14-15 pm). Average service time 5-6 hours. Services should be provided every working day, so that people can easily access these services whenever needed. According to office hours, it should be 8 hours. Service counters are open every workday (Monday-Friday). Service will stop during lunch hours, because there is no rotation between staff, and due to the lack of staff. 5 weekdays – 8 am until 5.30 pm, with one hour for lunch.

Visiting peak Depends on the season. Usually, 30 persons in a day.

Length of the ques

Customers per day

There are no queues because there are few customers, except for services at the bank when government employees, veterans and the elderly receive salaries and pensions. There is no data on how many transactions are made per month/year. No queues. Services are provided quickly once the applicant's documentation is complete.

For birth certificates 30 persons in a day, identity cards 100 in a day and voter’s cards 150 in a day. Average is 30 – 150 customers per day.

Liquiçá Municipality

most popular channel is the WhatsApp group and visiting office.

4 offices

Aileu Municipality

5 offices

No more visiting peaks, except at the bank where the elderly and veterans receive their pension every month. 10 persons per service provided.

No data, but the estimation is 10 persons in a day; it is not possible to serve more customers because only one official is working and has to do everything by himself (register, typing, printing, distributing) Approximately 10 users are registered daily requesting each service provided in the municipality.

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Name of Stakeholder Ermera Municipality Liquiçá Municipality Aileu Municipality

ICT Skills of officials

70% of the total staff (105 staff can use computers fluently (typing and printing) and only 30% (45 staff) are fluent in using ICT (able to scan, email, download, use zoom/skype)). And 4 ICT-Experts. One ICT expert, around 25 staff members who are fluent in using ICT and mostly are able to use the computer. 21 out of 43 officials know how to use a computer, three of them are ICT experts.

OSS KEY ELEMENT: ENGAGEMENT - the way in which services are delivered should be seen as citizen-centric Vulnerable groups

Vulnerable group always become priority when provided services. For instance, pregnant women, the elderly, and people with disabilities becomes priority in receiving services. There is no impediment. Vulnerable and disability groups are our priority in service delivery. Particularly for the pregnant women and the elderly. And the other costumers understand well this situation to give them priority too. The vulnerable and disability groups become a priority to our provided service. No protest and complain from other costumers or residents. But there is a problem with access to public buildings for the people with disabilities.

Multitude of languages

Illiterate citizens

Friends or relatives help them to communicate with officials. Friends or relatives help them to communicate with officials. Municipality civil servants do not speak Portuguese or English. If a foreigner is a user, it is recommended that they are accompanied by a local person.

Friends or relatives help them to communicate with officials. Municipality officers will help them because all services are still in paper-based format. Friends or relatives help them to communicate with officials.

Communication with citizens if necessary

Usually, information is shared via community radio, in the church during Mass and by the telephone too. Special cases and emergency events such as cases of Covid-19, malaria, tuberculosis, and vaccines, as well as visits by the state officials, are announced directly using ambulances around villages. WhatsApp group through village chiefs and announcements with the help of churches.

There is a need for announcements through all media channels, provision of brochures and pamphlets. WhatsApp is the most used way to communicate with the sucochiefs, who in turn communicate with the village chiefs to disseminate the information to the local community. Community radio, Facebook page and notices in the public and religious buildings are also used.

Representation of other citizens

Applicants cannot be represented by anyone because they must sign documents and take photos, except for services at the bank when Absolutely no, unless for a reason; for instance, the elderly could not come because of sickness, cannot walk, so they There cannot be a representation without a power of attorney and a validation of identity by the Suco or Village Chief.

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Name of Stakeholder Ermera Municipality

they receive pensions for veterans, widows, and the elderly. The representative must have a power of attorney. can send their relatives with special letter (power of attorney) to the service centre to get their rights.

Identification No comment.

Sufficiency of skills providing services

No, officials do not have sufficient capacity to carry out the tasks because the recruitment process is note-based on skills (merit system) but still using spoil system.

Liquiçá Municipality

The officers will check the citizen’s identity card and power of attorney letter, to ensure that there is no fraud and falsification of documents. No comment.

Very few officials have enough skills; around 2-3 persons per each service and even then, they must do double work, so it’s very inefficient.

OSS KEY ELEMENT: SPEED - Speed concerns re-engineering and simplifying processes and procedures Data exchange with other authorities during service provision

There is no need It should be in place, but due to the lack of staff in all departments, nothing has happened.

Services that require multiple visits

Services regarding the issuance of birth certificates, identity cards and voter cards. Because when the cards expires, the officer needs time to confirm with the ministry to get them, and it is not certain how many days it will take. Issuance of passport, birth certificate and identity card, if there are incomplete documents so it must be completed. If the documentation is not correct or incomplete, citizens are required to return.

Aileu Municipality

There is a major human resource training problem. Officials do not understand the law or the technical specifications inherent to the service. When one staff is promoted to chief, there are no operational staff to monitor, check and support into the rehabilitation of roads and sanitation projects. There are no engineers or financial specialists to handle very technical works. But recently it is in recruitment process.

There is no need.

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Name of Stakeholder Number of officials related to service provision Support needed from the ministries to ensure the operational and efficient operation of services? Ermera Municipality

150 employees, but only 20 employees are directly involved in the provision of services. Very low, it is around 2-3 person per each service. 43 officials for the Municipal Administration.

Additional office facilities (computers, printers, internet network, cards for printing identity cards, birth certificates and election cards as well as additional staff).

Urgent need for the improvement and rehabilitation of facilities (offices and roads), human resources (quality and quantity). Improvement of infrastructure facilities and the financial and human resources. The ministries are requested to support the adequacy of the infrastructure, with more computer equipment and improvement of the access conditions to the municipal headquarters, with improvement of the road infrastructures. Professional training is also requested for the technicians, both in the field of language proficiency, Portuguese, and English, and in the field of computer tools and the legal framework that regulates all activities.

Liquiçá Municipality Aileu Municipality

OSS KEY ELEMENT: RESPONSIVE- There should be an ‘intelligent’ mechanism in place to drive any changes required Most complicated service to apply for

In generally there are no complicated services because they are easy to understand by the community before applying. All kind of services introduce, and all the services have been socialized to the community through social media, church and village officials. Issuance of passports and identity cards is difficult due to the requirements (every resident must prepare and bring along documents, including filling up the form, getting a formal letter from the village chief, and the birth certificate). The requirement of the birth certificate to the detriment of the baptism certificate.

Information of changes in service provision

All information about changes in the field of a service must be conveyed at least 3 days before, via radio, church and village heads. Through village chiefs, WhatsApp group and Facebook, as well as in the church.

Announcements on the Facebook page and on community radio; for the most isolated communities: communication by WhatsApp to the suco and village chiefs.

OSS KEY ELEMENT: INTERACTION - refers to receiving feedback form citizens and engaging them as co-creators of the OSS.

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Name of Stakeholder Ermera Municipality Liquiçá Municipality

The difficulties involved in providing the service Services which require communication with several government institutions

The biggest difficulty is when the card sheets run out of stock, because when entering the election year there are thousands of people who must be served to get a voter card. Limited staff is the biggest obstacle during the provision of services. Particularly, when staff get sick, leave or take their maternity leave, and leave with reasons. The capacity of the staff to attend the requests.

Services in the fields of health, social and education; for example: if someone dies and there is a natural disaster, the municipality must coordinate the provision of coffins and emergency assistance with the social department. Natural disasters, social supports, and health. Social work, water distribution and natural disasters.

Feedback from customers

There are suggestions boxes, but they are not in active use. Customers want to provide direct and verbal feedback. Feedback from customers is important for service improvement. No comment. Through the Facebook page or personally.

OSS KEY ELEMENT: INTEGRATION – seamless integration, no “wrong door” policy for the customer Support needed for service provision (both content and technical wise)

Continuous training program for the staff, especially in IT, Portuguese and English. Everything - human resources, facilities, office equipment, trainings.

Support provided Service provision after the finalization of decentralization

From advisors and some senior staffs. Advisor and senior staff (former administrator) Senior staff (former administrator and deputy) and from the ICT staff

In the 1990s when Timor-Leste was still part of Indonesia, OSS (integrated service units) already existed in 13 districts. People in Emera have experienced integrated services during the Indonesia era (1995-1999). The implementation of decentralization should be in line with quality services; through the OSS it is our hope that this quality services will be born. The installation of an OSS is important for the municipality, for greater efficiency and effectiveness in the provision of services to the community. It is not an easy process, but it will be successful when installed.

Aileu Municipality

There is a need for continuous training in the areas of administration, procurement, public financing, legislation, and IT.

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Name of Stakeholder

OTHER COMMENTS Ermera Municipality Liquiçá Municipality

I think the presence of an OSS will bring a significant impact on the tourism and business development sector. To ensure access to public services, it is important to use the municipal portal (municipal website), phone and email, but the low speed of internet and bad signal have become the main constraints of service provision. In local municipalities the services should be provided at the sub-municipality level, so people can have easy access to the services. In the near future, all services should be present at the municipal level because of decentralization. Decentralized social assistance and elimination of bureaucracy that now hinders the development process. Quick access to documents will be very favourable for the population.

For the implementation of public projects, the link between the municipal service and the private sector is very important, representing above all the development of the economy in remote areas.

Aileu Municipality

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