Dili, 27 April 2026 (Media Democracia) – Minister of Interior Francisco da Costa Guterres stated that the Ministry of Interior has now prepared a ministerial diploma to prepare for the testing process of new PNTL cadet candidates.
“So the whole process was completed yesterday. The General Command held a final meeting with relevant institutions to review it one last time before issuing the ministerial, so that the process itself can restart.” the Minister of Interior told journalists after the Council of Ministers meeting at the Government Palace this Wednesday (22/04).
He said that once these processes are complete and have gained legality through the ministerial diploma, the commissions will proceed based on that legal foundation to carry out the recruitment process.
The official informed that the recruitment process will take place either in April or in May this year.
Although the number of cadet candidates remains at 400, they will proceed with this number first. After all units are filled, only then will they consider opening new vacancies.
He explained that the budget for the new recruits does not need to be large, just sufficient.
“What we need most are psychometric and health. For the cultural test, we will work together with the Civil Service Commission, which will provide us with all the materials needed for the tests, so it won’t cost much.” he said.
Meanwhile, for this new recruitment, more than 12,000 new cadets who have already passed the document screening will return for testing.
In addition, a new supervision commission and jury will be created, but some experienced members will still be needed.
“We will still need some of them to take part, because some have experience. The monitoring and oversight commission needs some of them to continue, because they have experience and were able to detect many issues, so we will keep some of them so they can continue overseeing and accompanying the process to ensure it runs well.” Francisco informed.
Meanwhile, the jury and secretariat will be completely replaced with new people, while the secretary will come from Australia and also Portugal.
“Previously the secretariat was Timorese. At that time we trusted each other, but then problems started to arise. So whether we like it or not, we must bring people from other countries, so they can contribute knowledge and better ideas. Then, if Timorese are capable later, we can use our own people.” the Minister stated.
He added that previously they received support from the GNR, but support now is not much. The goal is to do better than 2011 to 2013, but after what happened then became a problem, so we must be careful again. The mechanism we have should not be damaged or broken.
Meanwhile, the Secretariat will be entirely concentrated at the PNTL General Command.
Report By: Estefánia Cardoso
Photo By: Estafánia Cardoso