Edilberto C. de Jesus just wrote an excellent piece about Timor-Leste in the Philippine Daily Inquirer. Published on 14 May 2011, the “Natural Resource Wealth Management” article describes both the author’s personal experience visiting Timor-Leste and the manner in which Timor-Leste has avoided the resource curse, known as the “Dutch Disease.”
The article also describes the challenges the government faces as it manages the revenue from its natural resources in a transparent manner to develop the capacity of its people and build a sustainable economy for its citizens.
A highlight of Timor-Leste’s achievements since gaining independence in 2002 includes:
The Revenue Watch Institute and Transparency International placed Timor-Leste in the group of countries most transparent with government revenues
In 2010, Timor-Leste achieved full compliance with the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), only the third country in the world to meet this standard
An improvement of
14 places in the Human Development Index rankings
19 places in the Corruption Perception Index
7 places in the World Bank Doing Business Report
And, between 2007 and 2009, Timor-Leste reduced the poverty incidence from 50 percent to 41 percent
Doug Hadden, Vice-President, Products at FreeBalance recently presented “Strengthening Public Financial Management through Transparency in Timor-Leste” at the 25th Annual International Consortium of Government Financial Management (ICGFM) conference in Miami.
This presentation describes how the Government of Timor-Leste employs the FreeBalance Transparency Portal and other mechanisms to create public financial management transparency to assist civil society, build infrastructure, set education goals, involve citizens, and improve government performance. The presentation describes how transparency was sequenced with other government reform.
Strengthening Public Financial Management Through Transparency in Timor-Leste to highlight 25th Annual ICGFM International Conference
Ottawa, Canada (May 13, 2011) – FreeBalance, a For Profit Social Enterprise (FOPSE) software company that helps governments around the world to leverage robust Government Resource Planning (GRP) technology to accelerate country growth, continues to promote customer Public Financial Management (PFM) success milestones. FreeBalance will be participating and presenting at the 25th Annual International Consortium of Government Financial Management (ICGFM) conference, May 15 – 20, 2011 in Miami. The conference will explore how governments are meeting the demands of citizens, civil society, media, and donors for greater impact on the shape of PFM policies.
“FreeBalance has developed good practices in government transparency that we will share with ICGFM participants,” said Manuel Pietra, President & CEO of FreeBalance. “The Government of Timor-Leste is leapfrogging more developed countries to become a transparency innovator. Lessons that we have learned are very valuable, even for governments who do not yet use FreeBalance software. Transparency improves government performance and helps build stable countries.”
Doug Hadden, Vice-President, Products at FreeBalance will present “Strengthening Public Financial Management through Transparency in Timor-Leste” on Tuesday, May 17, 2011, 10:45 am – 12:00 pm in the Grand Ballroom. This presentation describes how the Government of the Republic of Timor-Leste employs the FreeBalance Transparency Portal and other mechanisms to create public financial management transparency to assist civil society, build infrastructure, set education goals, involve citizens, and improve government performance. The presentation describes how transparency was sequenced with other government reform.
The Timor-Leste Transparency Portal was launched on March 15, 2011 demonstrating leadership in open and accountable public financial management. The Timor-Leste Transparency Portal allows citizens to access historical and recent government financial information to monitor funds effectiveness. Citizens can drill into amounts planned and spent by ministry, program and location The Timor-Leste Transparency Portal provides 10 years of budget information: the budget that was approved and the actual budget spent. Reports and filtered results can be exported in PDF, Word, Excel, XML and HTML formats.
The Government of Timor-Leste has leveraged rich web technology from FreeBalance to integrate data across multiple sources giving a simple unified whole of government view. The Transparency Portal integrates seamlessly within the FreeBalance Accountability Suite.
FreeBalance is active in 19 countries, including Antigua & Barbuda, Afghanistan, Canada, Iraq, Kosovo, Kyrgyz Republic, Liberia, Mongolia, Namibia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Southern Sudan, Timor-Leste, and Uganda among others. FreeBalance software manages more than a quarter trillion ($US) annual budgets worldwide. More than 70,000 users around the world use FreeBalance software to manage a global civil service workforce of 1,500,000.
About ICGFM ICGFM brings together government leaders, public financial management experts, international donors and program managers every year at the ICGFM Conference in Miami. Representatives from Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North America – 50+ countries in 2008 — will be gathering in Miami to discuss what their governments are doing in response to the global economic downturn and how they are preparing public financial management to deal with the economic uncertainty. More at www.icgfm.org.
About FreeBalance FreeBalance helps governments around the world leverage robust Government Resource Planning (GRP) technology to accelerate country growth. FreeBalance software solutions for public financial and human resource management support reform and modernization to improve governance, transparency and accountability. Good governance is required to improve development results. For more information, visit www.freebalance.com.