| Historical background A few years ago, Timor-Leste hoped to get more than $300 million in U.S. assistance to construct local infrastructure under the MCC program. Eligibility for such MCC funding depends on some annual indicator scores which MCC uses to decide which countries qualify for that level of assistance. The MCC announces its annual scorecard near the end of the previous year, based on indicators calculated by other organizations, as listed in the table below. Scores are compared with other countries in the same income category, and MCC only supports countries when most of their scores are better than the average (median) for countries in their category. After being selected for intermediate "threshold" status in 2004, Timor-Leste first qualified for full MCC funding in early 2006, but the process of negotiating an agreement (called a "compact") between Dili and Washington was never completed, due to the "crisis" and the change of government in Dili. For background and context, see Timor-Leste Seeks Millennium Challenge Funding from Washington written for ETAN in October 2008. MCC tabulates new scores every October, which are labeled with the follow year's number because the U.S. Fiscal year (FY) starts in October of the previous calendar year. When FY2008 figures were announced at the end of 2007, Timor-Leste's indicators (particularly the one on controlling corruption) had fallen below the levels MCC requires for compact eligibility. However, U.S. Ambassador Hans Klemm and the Timor-Leste Government were able to persuade the MCC to bend the rules, and Timor-Leste remained eligible for another year, although compact negotiations were not completed. As scores dropped further for fiscal 2009, the Ministry of Finance tried to persuade MCC that they were serious about controlling corruption (see MoF 2008 Annual Report), but the MCC board ruled that Timor-Leste was no longer compact-eligible. [Reference: Fact sheet on MCC decision-making process.] At the end of 2008, Timor-Leste lost its eligibility for a compact but was accepted for "Threshold" status which provides a smaller level of funding to help the country improve its scores. Timor-Leste was considered a Low-Income Country (LIC). However, due to the inflow of oil money which raised our per capita income above $1,855, Timor-Leste moved into the Lower Middle Income Country (LMIC) status in 2010. Comparing Timor-Leste with less poor countries made its percentages lower, and caused Timor-Leste to fall below the median passing score for Girls Primary Education Completion, making it more difficult to qualify for compact eligibility. The 2010 scores were tabulated by MCC in October 2009 based on indicators calculated by other agencies during the previous 12 months. MCC published a Guide to the Indicators and Data Notes to explain the indicators they use and how they are compared with other countries. In October 2010, MCC published scores for 2011. Timor-Leste did worse on 11 criteria compared with the previous year, and improved in 4, with two unchanged. As described by the Center for Global Development, Timor-Leste fell 11 percentage points in the key corruption indicator. Timor-Leste's score is worse than 28 other LMIC countries, and only better than Angola, Iraq and Afghanistan.  Scores for Fiscal Year 2012
In November 2011, MCC published its scores for Fiscal Year 2012. Because they changed their methodology and some of the indicators, there are two score sheets. The old style one can be compared with past years, and the new one will be useful in the future. It is difficult to compare scores across years because MCC sent Timor-Leste back in to the Low-Income Country (LIC) category for 2012 (it was a Low-Middle Income Country - LMIC - in 2010-2011), due to an erroneous income (GNI) figure they got from the World Bank. To compensate for this, La'o Hamutuk calculated Timor-Leste's MCC scores as if it had been scored as a LMIC country, which allows comparison with other years, and we published the revised scorecard at right with both the LIC and LMIC scores. (Click on each graph to see it larger.) Graphs on this revised scorecard are the LIC scores. As the scorecard shows, Timor-Leste as a Low-Income Country failed the indicators for Control of Corruption, Government Effectiveness, Rule of Law, Immunization Rates, Girls Primary Education Completion, Regulatory Quality and Business Startup. In addition, lack of data prevented us from passing Primary Education Expenditures and Land Rights and Access. When scored as an LMIC country, we also fail Civil Liberties, Natural Resource Management, and Trade Policy.  The graph at left shows how Timor-Leste's scores have changed over the past three MCC scorecards. We continue to score well on Fiscal Policy because we have no external debt. The high Health Expenditure score is a statistical error; MCC uses a WHO indicator of health expenditure as a percent of GDP, and Timor-Leste's GDP does not include oil revenues, producing an inappropriately high score. In other areas, TL's scores have declined slightly since last year on indicators that it passed, and increased slightly where it was doing poorly (except immunization rates, which continue to fall). Civil Liberties is the only score which TL passed in FY2011 but failed in FY2012.
In the table below, green indicates when Timor-Leste passed the scores, yellow is when the rules were bent, and red indicates when Timor-Leste did not pass. The three magenta years (2010-2011) are when Timor-Leste was compared with other Low-Middle Income Countries; for all years before and after it has been categorized as Low Income. The change in categorization lowers the percentages in FY2010-FY2011, as we are being compared with less impoverished countries. MCC added some new scores in FY2012 and modified the rules to determine Compact eligibility. Click here for a 60-page Guide to MCC's FY2012 indicators, and for the World Bank Institute's Worldwide Governance Indicators 2002-2010 report for Timor-Leste, which shows sources and history for five indicators used by MCC. | Istoria Dahuluk Tinan hirak liu ba, Timor-Leste espera atu hetan osan tokon $300 resin hanesan asistensia EUA nian atu konstrui infrastrutura lokal iha programa MCC nia okos. Elijibilidade ba fundus MCC nian ida ne’e depende ba rezultadu indikador annual balu, ne’ebe MCC usa atu desidi nasaun ida ne’ebe mak qualifika ba nivel assistensia ida ne’ebe. MCC anunsia ninia rezultadu kada tinan wainhira tinan ida antes besik remata, baseia ba indikador sira ne’ebe kalkula hosi organizasaun seluk, hanesan lista iha tabela iha okos. Rezultadu sira ne’e kompara ho nasaun seluk iha kategoria rendimentu hanesan, no MCC supporta deit nasaun sira wainhira rezultadu barak diak liu kompara ho median ba nasaun sira ne’ebe tama sira nia kategoria. Depois hetan seleksaun ho status hanesan “Tama Fatin” intermediariu iha 2004, Timor-Leste, ba dala uluk hetan qualifikasaun atu hetan fundus masimu iha inisiu 2006, maibe Dili no Washington nunka kompleta prosesu negosiasaun ba akordo ida (hanaran "kompaktu") tanba “krize” no mos mudansa governu iha Dili. Atu hetan informasaun dahuluk no kontextu, hare Timor-Leste buka Fundu Millennium Challenge hosi Washington, hakerek ba ETAN iha Outubru 2008. MCC tabula rezultadu foun kada Outubru no labela ho numeru tinan tuir fali tanba tinan Fiskal EUA nian komesa iha Outubru hosi tinan kalendariu antes. Wainhira figura tinan fiskal 2008 anunsia iha tinan 2007 nia rohan, indikador Timor-Leste nian (partikularment ida ne’ebe kona ba kontrola korupsaun monu tia ona iha nivel requirementu MCC nia okos atu ba hetan elijibilidade ba kompaktu. Maibe, Ambassador EUA nian iha Timor-Leste, Hans Klemm, konsege persua MCC atu hakle’uk regulamentu, no Timor-Leste kontiua iha elijibilidade ba tinan ida tan, maski negosiasaun kompaktu seidauk kompleta. Hanesan rezultadu monu liu tan ba tinan fiskal 2009 nian, Ministeriu Finansas tenta atu persua MCC katak sira serio kona ba kontrola korupsaun (hare Relatorio Annual 2008 Ministeriu Finansas nian), maibe Board MCC nian decidi katak Timor lai sai tan hanesan nasaun ne’ebe iha eligibilidade ba kompaktu. (Referensia: Faktus kona ba prosesu halo decisaun MCC nian). Iha tinan 2008 nia rohan Timor-Leste lakon ninia eligibilidade ba kompaktu ida, maibe simu hanesan status “Tama Fatin” hodi hetan fundus ki’ik oan liu atu ajuda nasaun ne’e lori hadi’a ninia valor. Uluk,Timor-Leste konsidera hanesan Nasaun ho Rendimentu Okos. Maibe tanba hetan rendimentu hosi osan mina, ne’ebe aumenta rendimentu per capita liu $1,855, Timor-Leste muda ba status nudar nasaun ho rendmentu Medio Kraik liu iha tinan 2010. Kompara Timor-Leste ho nasaun sira ne’ebe la dun kiak, halo Timor-Leste nia persentagem tun liu, no kausa Timor-Leste tun liu ba median nia okos, liu valor ba Remata Edukasaun Primaria ba Labarik Feto Sira, diffikulta liu tan Timor-Leste atu hetan kualifikasaun ba elijibilidade kompaktu nian. Rezultadu 2010 nian ne’ebe tabula hosi MCC iha Outubro 2010 baseia ba indikador sira ne’ebe kalkula hosi ajensia sira seluk durante fulan 12 antes. MCC publika Mata dalan ida ba Indikador sira no Nota Data sira atu esplika indikador sira ne’ebe sira usa no oinsa sira kompara ho nasaun sira seluk. Iha tabela kraik ne’e koor verde fo indikasaun wainhira Timor-Leste liu valor, kinur wainhira regulamentu hakle’uk, no mean fo indikasaun wainhira Timor-Leste la pasa. |
