DILI (TOP) – Ensul Meci-Gestão de Projectos de Engenharia, S.A., has died in Portugal but awake in Colmera under the name of Ensul Engenharia, S.A., and has the privilege of using and exploring 22,635.00m2 of land for 99 years.
The former President for the Special Investment Agency (AEI) Felizberto Araújo Duarte (Tony Duarte) stated that after the Ensul Meci-Gestão de Projectos de Engenharia company, S.A went bankrupt in Portugal, he was the one who sent a letter to this company email regarding the process of its bankruptcy.
The Timor-Leste government approved AEI's status through government decree 34/2014 on 3 December 2014, and elected Felizberto Araújo as its president.
According to government decree 34/014 which TOP accessed, the aim of establishing AEI was to promote national and international investors investing in the country. And also issue or give investment certificates to national and international companies that want to invest in Timor-Leste. This specialization agency for investment was disbanded when the government cabinet reshuffled in 2015.
Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão resigned from office and appointed Rui Maria de Araújo of the FRETILIN party as his successor in 2015.
The cabinet reshuffle that took place at that time was to abolish the State Secretariat for Private Sector Promotion and Support Policy (SEAPRI), and only concentrate on the Ministry of Economy and Development led by Estanislau Aleixo da Silva (FRETILIN) and also abolished AEI and fired Felizberto Araújo Duarte from his position. After this dismissal, AEI was replaced by TradeInvest and led by Arcanjo da Silva (FRETILIN).
"At that time Secretary of State for Private Sector Promotion and Support Policy (SEAPRI) Veneranda Martins Lemos wrote a letter of my own that sent the company email to Ensul that the company was bankrupt," Tony Duarte explained to TOP in Largo de Lecidere Park, Dili, Tuesday 22 December 2020.
Even though the Ensul Meci company died in Portugal, after that it's awake in Colmera, Dili under the name of Ensul Engenharia, S.A., through these steps:
- Government efforts through SEAPRI in 2013 did not produce a positive decision even though Ensul Meci was bankrupt and Ensul Engenharia, S.A had not complied with the Special Investment Agreement.
- Ensul Meci-Gestão de Projectos de Engenharia, S.A entered into a Contract Position Assignment Agreement with Ensul Engenharia, S.A in Lisboa, on June 13, 2013
- Ensul Engenharia, S.A entered into a Contract Position Assignment Agreement with Compagnie Financiere Terria, S.A on May 19, 2014.
- And on July 24 2015 CFT, S.A entered into a Contract Position Assignment Agreement with Dili Financial Business Center Block A, S.A (DFBC Block A, S.A).
Tony Duarte considers the Contract Position Assignment Agreement between Ensul Meci-Gestão de Projectos e Engenharia, S.A., and Ensul Engenharia, S.A in Lisbon, Portugal as illegal and unlawful in Timor-Leste due to the fact that Ensul Meci was bankrupt.
"The government makes an agreement with a company, the company that is already bankrupt can no longer give to other companies. What they are doing is they are giving it to other companies to continue this investment, ”Tony Duarte explained.
"So, at that time SEAPRI had tried to stop it because they did not invest. They only rent the land back to another party,”he said .
"If the government gives land to someone to lease it back to another party, it is better if the land is given to me so I can do something bigger".
Ensul's special investment agreement, which took effect on Wednesday, April 14, 2010, is already 10 years old on Thursday April 16 2020, but it is suspected that there has been no land lease agreement with the ministry of justice.
Minister of Justice Manuel Carceres admitted that from April 16 2020 to December 2020 or for 9 months Ensul had not paid land tax to the government. Because according to him, Ensul must have a lease agreement before he can pay it. As of April 14 to December 2020, Ensul will have to pay $ 61,110 in land rental fees to the government.
"Actually, the government should stop and close Ensul's investment because for a long time they have only come to exploit, not invest," Tony Duarte advised the actual government to bring this special investment agreement to court in order to stop it.
He acknowledged that local entrepreneurs or indigenous entrepreneurs already have the financial capacity and experience to invest in their own country but the big problem they have faced so far is that they do not get the trust of domestic leaders. Domestic leaders are more likely to trust foreign investors who end up lying to them.
“But they did not come to invest like the current Ensul is doing. This person is not an investor, he comes as a broker looking for land, we give it to him and then he leases it back to someone else, he doesn't invest. If this happens, it is better if the land is given to the Timorese so that they can make investments,” the former president of AEI explained.
The Ensul investment agreement is not transparent Tony Duarte explained that the majority of investment agreements in Timor-Leste were transparent to the public to be accessed, but according to him only Ensul was not transparent because it was not published to the public to be accessible.
“If we want to compare you can see HEINEKEN investment. The agreement is ratified at a meeting of the ministerial council and published to the public so that anyone can see and access this agreement".
He adde: "Now if we check the Ensul agreement is not published to the public".
TOP has been trying to ask for comment from the Ensul since November 2020 but until now there has been no answer.
Meanwhile, A local Portuguese media outlet, abrilabril.pt reported that the workers of the bankrupt Ensul/Meci held on Friday, December 7, 2018 a protest concentration outside the Lisbon Commerce Court to demand payment of the credits due.
In a press release, the União dos Sindicatos de Setúbal (USS/CGTP-IN) states that this morning's action, with the Lisbon Court of Commerce, aimed to demand payment of credits to former Ensul / Meci workers.
"The bankruptcy of the company already occurred in 2012 and after six years there is no answer regarding the workers' credits", stresses the USS, who stresses that it is "too long" for the people of the former construction company and with serious negative impacts on their lives.
