Corruption Watchdog Worried By Haitian Reconstruction Plan

As world governments prepare for the March 31st United Nations donor conference on Haitian reconstruction efforts, Transparency International is voicing concern about several aspects of the tentative recovery plan.

Late last week, the Haitian government released the “Action Plan for National Recovery and Development”, the end result of its consultations with local and international experts, and the document that will be the basis for its appeal to donor countries.

In an interview with Talk Radio News from Haiti, Transparency International’s Senior Consultant Roslyn Hees said the organization is concerned about several parts of the plan.

“There is no mention of any structure or process to monitor this aid whatsoever. There is a mention that there would be a financial audit, but we were hoping for something that was much more of an implementation monitoring and there is no mention of that in the document at this time.”

Hees is to meet with Edmond Mullet,the UN’s top official in Haiti, on Thursday to discuss Transparency International’s own proposal for a multi-stakeholders aid monitoring group consisting of the Haitian government and civil society as well as the UN and major donor countries.

Last week, Haitian President René Preval attempted to downplay and dismiss the most recent State Department report alleging corruption is present at every level of Haitian government.

“I am surprised he (President Preval) does not understand that this is very difficult situation and Haiti is not exempt from corruption. We are not blaming anyone, it exists everywhere. But the most important thing is to recognize that corruption exists and to pro-actively work to reduce corruption risk.”

The action plan also creates an Interim Commission for Haitian Reconstruction—a 20-member board with the final say in the review and approval of all projects—but Hees has issues with the proposed make-up of the board.

“It is a bit strange that a majority of the commission would be made up of international agencies and a minority would be made up of Haitian representatives. Even within the Haitian representation, there is no one from civil society, except a representative of Haitian unions, who cover a minuscule proportion of the Haitian workforce since most of the workforce is informal and not unionized. ” said Hees.

During his visit to Port-au-Prince earlier this week, President Clinton emphasized the importance of coordination between NGO’s and the Haitian government.

However Hees says the Haitian government hastily asked about 100 members of different civil society organizations to look at the plan during a March 19th meeting, where they received the 35-page document as they walked in the door.

“NGO’s felt they did not have time to do a proper analysis of the document and make comments. This was very much a pro forma consultation and many of them have put out press releases complaining about the process.”