THE Asia Research Centre (ARC) has successfully tendered for an AusAID A$350,000 project to provide training assistance to the Central Fiscal Authority of East Timor.

The tax policy and administration capacity has been significantly diminished by the recent troubles, as Indonesian citizens had previously held all the middle management and executive positions.

Subsequently there is a very limited pool of qualified and experienced East Timorese to step into these positions.

To rectify this, the East Timor Consolidated Budget is financing the recruitment of 53 local Revenue Service staff by June 2001.

Consultants from the ARC are currently recruiting and training these 53 East Timorese staff and providing translation and interpretation services for the Budget Preparation Department.

In the oncoming months, they also will be developing a formal recruitment, orientation and training strategy for East Timorese staff entering the Tax Office.

The ARC project is being managed by Mr David Ballantyne, and will also use the consultancy services of Mr Rod Taylor from the WA State Revenue Department and translator Ms Theresia Turner.

The profits from this project will be re-invested in research and will fund the appointment of a postdoctoral/research fellow for one year as well as top up funding for postgraduate fieldwork and subscriptions in the library.

“We were very pleased about the outcome of this tender,” said Ms Gitte Heij, senior project manager at the ARC.

“This was the second time in the last four months that the Asia Research Centre tendered for an AusAID project and it has won both.”