Anti-Corruption Unit

The PCIC Anti-Corruption Unit is the specialised structure for investigating crimes that affect the integrity of public institutions and citizens’ trust in the State. It operates within the competences that the PCIC Organic Law reserves to this police force in matters of economic and financial crime, in coordination with the Anti-Corruption Commission (CAC), the Public Prosecution Service, and international financial-crime bodies.

The unit’s scope covers the offences of active and passive corruption, embezzlement, abuse of power, influence peddling, economic participation in business, money laundering, tax fraud, and illicit enrichment. Investigation of these crimes requires a multidisciplinary approach combining classical criminal-investigation techniques with financial and asset analysis, cross-checking of property records, analysis of banking flows, and recourse to international judicial and police cooperation mechanisms for tracing assets and illicit transfers abroad.

The unit works in close coordination with the Financial Intelligence Unit (UIF), the business registration and verification service (SERVE), and the Tax Authority, whose database is a central instrument in tax and asset investigations. Externally, it cooperates with INTERPOL and with regional counterparts in investigations with transnational ramifications, particularly in cases of money laundering involving offshore jurisdictions or international criminal networks.

The Anti-Corruption Unit is a central element in the agenda for consolidating the rule of law in Timor-Leste. Effective action against corruption is an essential condition for public trust in State institutions, for attracting investment, and for the country’s sustainable development, and PCIC takes on this mandate as one of its strategic priorities for the 2020-2030 period.