Parliament agrees on a candidate for Anti-Corruption Commissioner

Parliament agrees on a candidate for Anti-Corruption Commissioner Independente, January 15, 2019 Language source: Tetun

All parliamentary benches have reached an agreement to appoint a new Anti-Corruption Commission (KAK) Commissioner to replace Aderito Tilman whose mandate ended in October 2018.

At the conclusion of Mr. Tilman’s term, the government had proposed two candidates the out-going Commissioner himself and Sergio Hornai, the President of Timor-Leste’s Public Defenders, but benches in parliament disagreed, putting the appointment of new KAK Commissioner on postponement until today.

Addressing parliament, Democratic Party (PD) Bench Deputy Chairman, Adriano Do Nascimento said Candidate Aderito Tilman had been going back to working as prosecutor after his term as KAK Commissioner ended last year, therefore, before parliament voting for these two candidates, it needed to confirm with the candidates.

“I want to ask, has Mr. Tilman resigned from his candidacy? The government needs to clarify about the candidates’ readiness,” Nascimento said yesterday at National Parliament.

Echoing Nascimento’s words, Joaquim Dos Santos from Fretilin Party, said it was important to make sure the two candidates still wanted to be KAK Commissioner before parliament voted for them.

“We need to know if the candidates still want to continue their candidacies or not, even if one of them resign, we could still continue with the voting,” Dos Santos said.

Responding to the concerns, National Parliament President, Arao Noe said the two candidates had not yet sent any official letter to parliament about stepping down from their candidacies, therefore, he was confident, their candidacies were still valid, but he would confirm with the government before scheduling the voting for the new KAK Commissioner.