While Timor-Leste has taken steps to establish a legal and institutional framework for a transparent, accountable and democratic state, the country has been slow in adopting the legal framework for anti-corruption, with the Law on Anti-Corruption pending in Parliament since 2011 and the country yet to adopt a National Anti-Corruption Strategy. Timor-Leste’s performance on different global indices continues to be poor, with a ranking of 101 out of 176 countries in the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index 2016. 

The Government has established a National Implementation Technical Working Group chaired by the Anti-Corruption Commission (CAC) to develop a strategy on anti-corruption however with this assistance concluding at the end of 2017, there is enthusiasm at the highest level of CAC to continue cooperation with the UN through UNDP.

The capacity and quality of public service delivery provided by local governments is a related area of growing concern. The Government has proposed to allocate $132 million in 2018 for all municipalities, as compared to $20-42 million in 2017, to be used for various decentralization programmes.  Without a ‘checks and balances’ mechanism in place, the devolution of previously centralized powers to the regions could trigger and worsen the perception of corruption and mist-management at the local level and ultimately undermine development efforts.