By: Staff Writer
September 6, 2024
Haiti’s anti-corruption agency announced they are undertaking an investigation on several former officials of the Haitian government in that country’s latest crackdown.
The newest cases involve food meant for public school students being diverted for other purposes to government fuel being used for personal benefit.
“These personalities have betrayed the country,” said Hans Joseph, general director of the Anti-Corruption Unit, who has been relentless in his pursuit of illegalities despite little to no repercussions for those accused.
Last year, Joseph, submitted eleven investigation reports on proven corruption cases to the dean of the court of first instance in Port-au-Prince and the government commissioner at the court of first instance.
With the new cases revealed this week, Joseph said has cost the Haitian government $4.7 million, “an amount that paradoxically exceeds twice the budget allocated to the (agency) to fight corruption.”
One case involves the general director and other officials at Haiti’s National Solid Waste Management Service. The report states that while the agency disbursed $1.7 million to buy fuel from December 2021 to April 2024, only 45% of the fuel bought was used for the agency’s daily operations. The rest was used by the agency’s general director and others, the report alleged.
“As a general director, I find it normal to use the institution’s cash register to support myself,” Germain Paulémon, told investigators, according to the report.
Another case found that officials with Haiti’s National School Food Program bought $2.9 million worth of food from October 2016 to February 2021, but that out of a sample of 11 schools across Haiti, the majority “barely received anything,” the report found.
Officials said the food was diverted for other purposes but did not detail them. They noted that 90 percent of the providers listed by the program “did not physically exist,” and that some were run by the program’s own employees.
Haiti is now suffering with malnutrition of over 400,000 of its residents as a result of the out of control gang activity that has displaced thousands of citizens from their homes in Port-Au Prince.
Armed violence has intensified and the number of children in Haiti suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM), also known as severe wasting, which has skyrocketed in the country by 30 percent compared to 2022, UNICEF has warned last year.
Officials also opened a case against the former minister of planification and external cooperation, Aviol Fleurant, after more than 4,900 people signed a petition demanding he be investigated. Authorities accused him of illegal enrichment, saying he could not explain the origin of more than $570,000 in his bank accounts.
Other cases include the alleged embezzlement of more than $170,000 at Haiti’s power company after someone filed a complaint against senior board executives.
“The work that we do and that we intend to execute against all odds is that…of cleaning up the public administration,” Joseph said.
All those cited in the report following years-long investigations were referred to the public prosecutor’s office. However, Haiti rarely prosecutes government officials.
Joseph said that his office also has demanded declarations of assets from 14 diplomats, ambassadors, consuls and consul generals who have yet to submit any information, and, as a result, were referred to authorities.