"Lifese Engineering To Take PM Xanana to Court"

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Jornal Nacional Diario, 15.4.2011 - (TRANSLATION FROM TETUM)

The Company Lifese Engineering is taking Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao to court because for non-compliance with the terms of the contract to construct the Hera Naval Port.

“I can say that I am a bit at fault, I acknowledge that. I will go to Court or go wherever I have to go. If I am summoned to go to Sydney (for court) I will also go. I have already gone to Jakarta (Indonesia), to go to Sydney then perhaps the human rights conditions are better in the jails over there,” said PM Xanana to journalists, Thursday, (14/4), at the Presidential Palace, Aitarak Laran, Dili, when answering on questions regarding the government having already spent US$4.5 million with the company Lifese Engineering Australia to construct the Naval Port.

The reason the company is taking the head of the Timor-Leste government to court is because the government has failed to pay the company what is owing to it pursuing to the contract.

PM Xanana has acknowledged that he has acted wrongfully because he signed the contract with the company without carefully examining it and then afterwards irregularities emerged in the contract’s contents later.

PM Xanana said that he was ready to face the claim by the company Lifese Engineering. However, he said that the US$4.5 million paid till now to the company has not been wasted, because the money was pent n the acquisition of materials for the port that are already in Timor-Leste.

PM Xanana himself said, that when he signed the contract with the company Lifese Engineering from Australia he did not read it carefully, and because of this there were some irregularities that emerged in its contents later.

“My English is limited to merely being able to say ‘How are you?’ So I trusted the highly paid specialist advisor whom we previously employed in the STA (Technical Secretariat for Procurement) to prepare the contract, but then it turns out that Australian law was applicable to the contract, and so ……. heiii ……. I almost died, signing dumbly like I did, I who have not even studied English and when I speak I am always being corrected by people,” said PM Xanana.

PM Xanana said that he contract stipulated that the company would be paid within 14 days, but the system in Timor-Leste is different from Australia’s and this is why PM Xanana did wrong. PM Xanana added that he will now hand over his trust to a Timor-Leste company to finish building the Hera Naval port. (cru)
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