THE IMPORTANCE OF ASSET DECLARATION FOR THE LAWENFORCEMENT OFFICER IN TIMOR-LESTE
Augusto da Costa Castro *I. INTRODUCTION
As we know that in the life of the nation and State, there is no single institution that is
free from potential risks of corruption. Currently, corruption has undermined all aspects oflife of every individual and institution, including law enforcement institutions and theirofficers. As the Transparency International 2019 Global Corruption Barometer – Africa
survey showed, 47 per cent of Africans believe that most or all police are corrupt, with 28
per cent also saying they had paid a bribe to a police officer in the previous year; the police
also earned the highest bribery rates in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle
East and North Africa, where 24 and 22 per cent, respectively, said they had paid a bribe
to a law enforcement officer in the past year. 1 Police corruption broadly refers to “acts of
misconduct by police officers aimed at obtaining financial benefits or other personal gains
in exchange for selectively enforcing or manipulating rules, as well as the conduct ofinvestigations and arrests” (Chêne 2010).
The impact of law enforcement corruption on the public interest is devastating, because
it denies people accessibility to legal protection, and corruption can protect other criminal
activity such as drug dealing, human trafficking, prostitution, illegal gambling and illegal
logging, which consequently diminish public faith and confidence in the law enforcement
authorities, themselves. This is because the public relies on the law enforcement officers to
uphold the law, protect the community and assist it in times of need. In Timor-Leste,
corruption was widespread among government officials. Transparency International ranked
Timor-Leste at 93 out of 180 countries on its Corruption Perceptions Index in 2019, and theGovernment of Timor-Leste is continuing to take steps to combat corruption. There wereaccusations of police, including border police and immigration officials, involvement incorruption–most commonly bribery and abuse of power. Allegations of nepotism ingovernment hiring were common. The customs service was under scrutiny for alleged
corruption related to incoming goods.2 The Anti-Corruption Commission in its 2019 annual
report reported that, in 2019, there were four corruption cases that occurred in two law
enforcement authorities, where two cases involved members of the Timor-Leste National
Police (PNTL) and two other cases occurred in the customs service. 3 As a law enforcement
officer, they should keep away from corrupt behaviour because when officers act illegally,
they dishonour both themselves and the law and the entire justice system that they represent.

Senior Criminal Investigator of the Anti-Corruption Commission (CAC), Timor-Leste.
Transparency International 2019 Global Corruption Barometer Survey, retrieved from<https://www.transparency.org/en/blog/fix-the-police>.
2
Retrieved from <https://www.state.gov/reports/2019-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/timorleste/>.
3
Comissão Anti-Corrupção, Relatório Anuál CAC 2019, Dili, 2019, p. 25.
*
1- 159 - 159 -In order to effectively fight corruption crime within the law enforcement authorities,
there must be a serious effort to identify the root of the corruption itself. Thus, urgent andconcrete action with a progressive approach needs to be introduced by the State.
Law No. 8/2009 (15 July) on the establishment of the Anti-Corruption Commission(CAC) does not provide any direct or concrete preventive measures to be in place for theprevention of corruption in Timor-Leste. Although criminal offences against corruption arecontained in the Penal Code, the purpose of which is to deter public officials from engaging
in corrupt acts, no system for effective corruption prevention efforts has been designed yet.
Whereas in article 4 of law number 8/2009 it states that, “The mission of the Commission
is to undertake the preventive action and criminal investigation action against corruption in
any of its forms”. However, the preventive actions that were taken so far by the CAC are
still very general in nature, such as directing an anti-corruption campaign to the public,
public awareness raising, and inspection and monitoring of the implementation of
government projects.
There are several causes for the occurrence of corruption within the law enforcement
authorities, one of which is the absence of a transparency and accountability mechanism
for the public officials regarding their income, assets and interests during their tenure.
Without asset declaration procedures, it is difficult to exert control over state losses, which
can accumulate through corruption involving public officials. In Timor-Leste, corruption
prevention efforts are generally only internal, namely from and by the superiors of an
institution, so this is considered less effective and efficient because there is still room for
manipulation and collaboration between corrupt officials and their superiors.
Corruption, which is known as a multidimensional crime, should not only be dealt withby prosecution but also through preventive mechanisms, one of which is through asset
declaration, monitoring and control of the assets of public officials. Asset declaration will
limit the ability of public officials to accept illegal assets, accept bribes and practiceextortion and corruption. According to the World Bank, asset declaration is regarded as “apowerful tool to prevent corruption, detect illicit enrichment and conflicts of interests” 4 andsubsequently to identify ill-gotten gains among public officials. Around the world there are“more than 150 countries have introduced asset disclosure requirements for their public
officials.” 5
In this paper, I will discuss the mechanisms for preventing criminal acts of corruption
through the asset declaration regime in Timor-Leste, which will increase the transparency
and integrity of public officials to the public, especially law enforcement officers. This is
expected to be an external monitoring mechanism for all forms of conflict of interest,
lifestyles and assets of every public official who carries out public duties for the welfare of
the whole Timorese society.

<https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/opinion/2016/09/26/asset-declarations-a-threat-to-privacy-or-apowerful-anti-corruption-tool>.
5
Ibid.
4

- 160 - 160 -II. THE RATIONALE OF ASSET DECLARATION
The declaration of assets by public officials can be a powerful mechanism for both theprevention and investigation of public-sector corruption. Based on the experience of several
countries that have implemented this mechanism, they are able to control corruption that
occurs in the public sector. Thus, this mechanism is recommended to be implemented incountries with very high levels of corruption. This mechanism was first started in UnitedStates and was initiated by President Truman in 1951 amidst rampant corruption in the
public sector. It was then followed by several countries in Western Europe in the 1980s,
and it was put into practice by all European members in 2000 (OECD 2011, pp. 22-23).
The principles behind this mechanism are transparency, accountability and integrity.
As the bedrock of clean and corruption-free government, these principles are recognized as
the important elements in regulating the relationship between the State and its people. By
relying on these principles, an atmosphere of mutual trust can be created so that, in carryingout its duties, the public does not suspect that public officials are engaged in corrupt
practices. Article 8, Chapter II of the UNCAC provides that in order to fight corruption,
each State Party shall promote, inter alia, integrity, honesty and responsibility among its
public officials, in accordance with the fundamental principles of its legal system. Moreparticularly, the Convention encourages each State Party:. . . where appropriate and in accordance with the fundamental principles of its
domestic law, to establish measures and systems requiring public officials to makedeclarations to appropriate authorities regarding, inter alia, their outside activities,
employment, investments, assets and substantial gifts or benefits from which a
conflict of interest may result with respect to their functions as public officials. 6
Furthermore, in article 52(5) it is stated that:
Each State Party shall consider establishing, in accordance with its domestic law,effective financial disclosure systems for appropriate public officials and shallprovide for appropriate sanctions for non-compliance. Each State Party shall also
consider taking such measures as may be necessary to permit its competentauthorities to share that information with the competent authorities in other States
Parties when necessary to investigate, claim and recover proceeds of offences
established in accordance with this Convention. 7
III. THE ASSET DECLARATION REGIME IN TIMOR-LESTE
In Timor-Leste for years, there have been calls for transparency and asset declarationof elected and public officials, as these will improve the confidence of the people andforeign investors in the government’s integrity and good governance. Therefore, throughits National Parliament, Timor-Leste enacted Law No. 7/2020 (26 August) on Prevention
Measures and Combating of Corruption, which established a regime of asset declaration
for public officials.

6
7Article 8. Codes of Conduct for Public Officials, Section 5, Chapter II, UNCAC.
Ibid.

- 161 - 161 -The asset declaration regime in Timor-Leste is a mechanism that can be said to be amodern and progressive approach towards fighting against corruption because it includes
and adopts all universal principles and good practices which have been applied in various
countries. As applied in many countries, an effective and legally binding asset declaration
mechanism must have such fundamental elements as described as follows.
A. Legal Basis
The legal basis for asset declaration in Timor-Leste is divided into two categories,
namely international conventions and national laws.
1. International Conventions
For the Timor-Leste context, the main source of law which forms the basis for thecreation of the asset declaration regime is the United Nations Convention against
Corruption (UNCAC) which is stipulated in article 8 (5) and article 52 (5). Timor-Lestefully ratified UNCAC in 2008 through Parliamentary resolution number 25/2008. Pursuant
to article 9 (2) of the Timor-Leste Constitution, which states that: “The norms contained ininternational conventions, treaties and agreements are in force in the domestic legal order
upon approval of ratification or adherence by the respective competent bodies and after
being published in the official gazette.” Therefore, with the resolution of the National
Parliament, UNCAC has become legally binding on Timor-Leste and will be implemented
gradually by the competent state institutions.
2. National Laws
The national laws which serve as the basis of asset declaration are, first, Law No. 5/2009
concerning the civil service statute as stipulated in article 10 (4) about conflicts of interest,
where it is clearly stated that,. . . in case of suspicion of corruption, fraud, embezzlement or, in general, diversionof assets or public money, the public official, within the scope of the competent
process, is obliged to provide access to his assets before the administrative andjudicial authorities, acting in accordance with the law and in accordance with thepowers of inspection and supervision.
Second, chapter II of Law No. 7/2020 (26 August) on Prevention Measures andCombating of Corruption establishes the asset declaration regime for public officials.
According to article 27 of this law, the ultimate goal of the asset declaration regime is to,one, detect and prevent conflicts of interest; and two, monitor the fluctuation of wealth todetect significant and unjustified increases of the assets of people subject to declaration. In
addition to the two goals above, it also tacitly aims to prevent other related crimes such as
tax evasion and money laundering.
B. The Content of Declarations
Good asset declaration regimes spell out clearly and specifically the income, assets,interests, obligations and expenditures that should be declared by public officials.
According to article 34 (2) of Law No. 7/2020, the declaration must be detailed and cover
all types of income; movable and immovable assets; precious objects with a value above
US$1,500; all types of investments; commercial company ownership; current accountbalances and deposits, as well as other financial products; securities including stocks andother financial instruments; debts and other financial obligations; gifts including travel andother leisure or entertainment activities over US$250; foreign travel and other luxury- 162 - 162 -expenses above US$2,500; participation in executive management bodies, administrative
councils, supervisory or consultation bodies or any collegial body of a commercial
company; and participation in private organizations, including political parties, politicalassociations, associations and other non-profit organizations.
C. Covered Officials
In practice, the coverage of public officials who must report their assets is applieddifferently from country to country. Some require declarations from all civil servants; someonly require declarations from civil servants in certain positions; some only requiredeclarations from elected officials. This depends on the level of responsibility in dealing
with the powers and functions of a public official and the potential corruption risks involved.
According to article 29, a wide group of public officials is covered. This includes allheads and members of the four branches of the estate sovereign bodies such as the Presidentof the Republic; Members of Parliament; members of the Government; members of the
judiciary magistrate and all of their high-ranking officials. The obligation to declare assets
also includes heads of management and leadership positions in local and national public
administration as well as armed and police officers, elective bodies of local government,
holders of management positions and leadership of public companies, officials and officersof the customs, taxation, state asset management, state inspection and audit service,ambassadors, consuls and holders of direction and leadership positions in Timor-Leste’sembassies in foreign countries and also members of the criminal investigation police andmigration services.
Apart from the people mentioned above, other people who also have to declare theirassets are their family members. Family members of the declarant covered by this law are
the spouse or person with whom he/she lives in marital union, minor or economicallydependent children, and other economically dependent persons.
D. Period of Declaration
As a mechanism to monitor changes in assets, the period of the submission of thedeclaration must be tightly regulated. According to article 32 of the Law No. 7/2020, theperiod of declaration is defined in four categories, such as the initial declaration done within
30 days after taking office, the annual declaration due by 31 January of the following year,
the final declaration up to 30 days after termination of office and the post-exercise
declaration annually during the three years following the termination of the term of office.
However, the declaration can be presented at any time, at the initiative of the declarant,
whenever there is a substantial change in the declarant’s assets and interests. For lower
level declarants, instead of the annual declaration, they are required to submit a declaration
every three years as referred to in article 29, lines u), v), w), x), y), z), and aa).
E. Verification
A good asset declaration regime should have a mechanism for verification. A thoroughand careful verification process will have the power to test and explore the truth, accuracy,
authenticity, clarity and validity of the documents, source and existence of a declaration
against the standard and specifications that are required by law. There are two types ofverification: formal verification as stipulated in article 41, and risk-based audits asmentioned in article 44 with the aim to determine whether there have been significant andunjustified increases in the assets of the declarant or members of the declarant’s family, as
well as the existence of conflicts of interest. These two verification procedures are- 163 - 163 -mandatory and applied to all declarations undertaken by oversight bodies every two years
as set forth in article 43.
For the purpose of verification, the oversight bodies may request additional information,
data and explanation from the declarant and the declarant’s family members andgovernment institutions that have the authority over asset registration and other private
natural or juridical institutions with whom the declarant or member of the declarant’s
family has carried out transactions or who is in possession of information on a transaction
subject to the declaration as clearly stipulated in article 46. The additional information will
be used as a comparison to the information and documents submitted by the declarant andthe declarant’s family members in the declaration form.
F. Oversight Bodies
According to article 28, there are two oversight bodies to oversee the receiving andverification of asset declarations, namely the CAC and the Supreme Court of Justice,whereas the Supreme Court of Justice will receive and verify the declarations that arecoming from the President of the Republic, the Members of the National Parliament andmembers of the Government Cabinet including public officials of the CAC. The
declarations of all other public officials will be receive and verified by the CAC. In thisasset declaration process, these two oversight bodies also have the authority to impose fines
on declarants and their family members who do not comply with the rules and regulations
as regarded in the asset declaration regime.
G. Cooperation
Cooperation is one of the fundamental factors for the success of an asset declaration
system. Due to limitations in the availability and accessibility of information, eachoversight body must have a wide range of networks of cooperation either with individual
people or institutions in order to be able to access accurate and credible information about
the subject and object of the declaration and to facilitate the verification process to detect
ill-gotten assets and the application of sanctions.
Pursuant to articles 46 (2) and (3), cooperation of the oversight bodies with otherinstitutions is necessary with regard to the following institutions: civil registration office,land, sea and aero transportation registration office, commercial entity registration office,non-governmental registration office, land and property registration office, tax
administration office, banks and other financial institutions, casinos and the Financial
Intelligence Unit.
The oversight bodies may also obtain information abroad through access to freedatabases or through cooperation with foreign authorities. As stated in article 46 (4) and(5), the oversight bodies may resort to international cooperation in order to obtain
information from banks, legal persons and foreign governments if the declared assets areoutside of the country.
H. Accessibility
One of the mechanisms to ensure effectiveness in controlling assets and conflicts ofinterest of public officials is by involving the public through disclosing asset declaration
data to the public. Experience shows that most successful investigations are triggered bycomplaints of citizens, NGOs and journalists with knowledge about the true situation of an- 164 - 164 -unfaithful public official. Therefore, asset declarations should be publicly available online. 8
Contrary to the principle of transparency, the asset declaration regime in Timor-Leste does
not permit public access to data and information on the content of the asset declaration
itself. Article 56 of Law No. 7/2020 criminalizes the negligent or intentional disclosure of
information contained in a declaration. Officials from oversight authorities who areconvicted of such conduct may be sentenced to imprisonment between 2 to 5 years or afine.
I. Sanctions
In order to be able to demonstrate the effectiveness, strength and binding power of anasset declaration regime, it must have an element of sanctions. The asset declaration regime
in Timor-Leste follows a two-pronged system of sanctions, namely administrative
sanctions and criminal sanctions. Administrative sanctions in the form of fines are imposed
for several violations such as late declaration of assets (article 48), failure to declare assets
after notification (article 49), incomplete declaration (article 51), omission of information(article 52), and the declaration of false information (article 53). Criminal sanctions can be
imposed for several acts of violation such as a refusal to declare by a family member (article50), incomplete declaration (article 51 (2)), the declaration of false information (article 53(2)), obstruction of verification (article 54) and breach of obligation by an agent of theoversight body (article 55).
J. Reporting
Although there is a question in terms of transparency, reports on the asset declaration
regime in Timor-Leste are open to the public. As stipulated in article 28 (3), the oversight
body is required to produce a biennial statistical report containing the number of people
required to declare, the number of people who did not submit the declaration within thedeadline, the number of people who were sanctioned administratively, disciplinarily or
criminally by indicating the violations and sanctions applied as well as the number ofpeople whose verification of the declaration led to the adoption of measures to prevent or
resolve a conflict of interest. This report can be accessed by the public as required by article
9 (1) of the law. Regarding public complaints on the illegal gain or any other violation of apublic official, the law precisely follows the norms contained in article 13 (2) of UNCAC.
Thus, Article 109 (1) of Law No. 7/2020 expressly permits anonymous complaints.
IV. CONCLUSION
Public sector corruption that involves law enforcement officers has become a reality inmany countries, including Timor-Leste. There are various factors behind it, both from theindividual and from the legal environment, that limit the ability of the State to control thecorrupt behaviour of that individual. This must be addressed immediately. As law
enforcement officers are the guardians, protectors and enforcers of the law, they should beclean and free from all forms of corruption. If law enforcement officers are infected withthe corruption virus, it will facilitate the occurrence of other serious crimes because they
are the gatekeepers who take action against any perpetrator of crime that occurs in society.
One of the mechanisms that is believed to have the power to prevent corruption in the
public sector is the enactment of an asset declaration regime for public officials, including
8

Transparency International Principles on Asset Declaration.

- 165 - 165 -law enforcement officials, because the asset declaration regime is regarded as an effective
and efficient mechanism to prevent corruption, conflicts of interest, illicit enrichment andensuring public accountability, transparency and increasing institutional integrity.
Thus, Timor-Leste has learned from and reflected on the good experiences of countries
which were successful in combating corruption in the public sector through theestablishment of an asset declaration regime. Accordingly, Timor-Leste enacted its own
asset declaration regime for public officials, which is regarded as a modern and progressive
approach in the fight against corruption.
As a standard that has been adopted by various countries, the asset declaration regime
in Timor-Leste also adheres to fundamental principles such as, first, establishment of theregime based on a sound legal basis and for the purpose of detecting both illicit enrichment
and conflicts of interest; second, the content of the declaration must cover all essential
information regarding a public official’s income, assets, interests and expenditures; third,
the asset declaration should cover all public officials at risk for corruption including theirfamily members; fourth, the period of declaration should cover the time that the official
first assumes public office and during and after the term of office; fifth, the declaration
submitted should be verified rigorously and audited; sixth, the oversight body should beequipped with sufficient human and financial resources to verify and audit the declarations;seventh, the oversight body should cooperate with other State and private institutions for
obtaining comparative information; eighth, the declarations must be accessible to the
public; ninth, there must be administrative and criminal sanctions against misreporting ofassets, including declarations that are incomplete, inaccurate, intentionally erroneous, orthat omit or conceal any substantial amount of wealth; and, tenth, the oversight body must
produce regular reports containing, inter alia, case statistics and an analysis of trends.
With the enactment of this asset declaration regime, it is hoped that it will be able toeffectively prevent and eradicate corruption in the public sector, especially within the law
enforcement apparatus in Timor-Leste.

- 166 - 166 -