Overview:
Port-de-Paix residents are demanding accountability after a $5M renovation fund meant to enhance infrastructure was embezzled by officers and contractors. As hurricane season nears, town stays dangerously unprepared attributable to widespread corruption and neglect.
PORT-DE-PAIX— As Haiti’s hurricane season looms, residents in Port-de-Paix are renewing requires justice and accountability over a $5 million embezzlement scandal that derailed an important metropolis renovation challenge. Permitted in 2014 below the Martelly/Lamothe administration and funded by means of the PetroCaribe-backed Fund for Financial and Social Help (FAES), the challenge aimed to modernize the coastal metropolis’s infrastructure, increase the native financial system and enhance each day life.
“This particular plan may change the way in which we, the residents of Port-de-Paix, dwell if a sequence of crooks hadn’t conspired to settle their private affairs with it [the money],” Rodolph Pierre, 29, mentioned.
In accordance with a 2021 report from Haiti’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ULCC), no less than 12 public officers and personal contractors allegedly diverted the funds by means of unlawful contract awards, shell corporations and fictitious development work. Regardless of these findings, no prosecutions have taken place.
“This particular plan may change the way in which we, the residents of Port-de-Paix, dwell if a sequence of crooks hadn’t conspired to settle their private affairs with it [the money].”
Rodolph Pierre, Port-de-Paix resident
The next is an inventory of presidency staff and contractors that the ULCC report has accused of defrauding town.
- Lucien Francoeur, then Secretary Normal of the Prime Minister’s Workplace. Francoeur was liable for coordinating the execution of the particular challenge.
- Harry Adam, the director normal of the Housing and Public Constructing Building Unit (UCLBP). Adam awarded a number of contracts, together with roughly $170,000 in highway development initiatives, to the shell firm Limitless Companies Building (USC), thereby violating public procurement rules and tax legal guidelines.
- Thierry Erns Serres, proprietor of Société Haïtienne de Building (SOHACO) and Adam’s former colleague, was awarded a contract of over $150,000.
- Fred Lizaire, proprietor of Limitless Companies Building.
- Adrien Ciné, an engineer and proprietor of E.S. Building—a agency began simply days earlier than securing a contract price almost $50,000. The corporate’s first checking account was opened one month after signing the settlement. Ciné additionally owns the Heart for Analysis, Improvement, and Building (CREDCO), contracted for about $93,000, and serves as the chief director of SECOPLUS—one other development firm concerned in the identical challenge.
- Engineer Evelt Sénatus, former deputy mayor of Port-de-Paix.
- Grégoire Desravines, proprietor of Mieux Construire or Construct Higher.
- Louystz Amyot François, former member of the Chamber of Deputies, representing Port-de-Paix. François can be an acquaintance of Desravines and Francoeur.
- Engineer Datilus Digué, proprietor of Heart for Analysis, Improvement and Building (CREDCO).
- Rodolphe Némorin, proprietor of Alix Cinéas Building or AC CONSTRUCTION—a agency contracted to construct a sports activities complicated for about $300,000—had obtained 60% of that quantity upfront, however the work was by no means accomplished.
- Grégory Saliba, proprietor of HAITI WORXS, additionally obtained a contract price roughly $151,000 and obtained 60% of the cost for under 15% of the work executed.
- Jorice Dorsainvil can be named within the ULCC report as an confederate in conspiracy to award public contracts illegally.
Most affected initiatives and grassroots interventions
Among the many unfulfilled initiatives is the renovation of the 47-year-old public market, also referred to as Marché-Bord-de-Mer—French for “Seaside Market”—the place distributors proceed to promote items below makeshift shelters or within the open air. A million U.S. {dollars} was allotted for the market’s reconstruction.
“This market must be redesigned, constructed, and well-equipped to fulfill public security and trendy requirements,” Maryse Julien, a 65-year-old vendor, instructed The Haitian Occasions. “We are able to’t proceed to show our items below scraps of material.”
“The judicial authorities should use the ULCC report back to prosecute the people who stole this cash; it’s a giant crime,” she added.
The one-mile-long La Tenderie canal, a key flood mitigation challenge, additionally stays untouched. An estimated $500,000 was earmarked for its restoration. The dearth of progress in flood management contributed to devastating rains between November and December 2024, which left greater than a dozen deaths, almost 34,000 properties destroyed and over 275,000 residents affected.
Native activist Rodolph Pierre mentioned the failure to finish these initiatives displays a systemic betrayal. “This plan may have remodeled our lives,” he mentioned. “As a substitute, it’s made issues worse.”
A number of neighborhoods—together with Morne Bethel, Cité Maxo, Morne Béthel, Desroulin and Cassave—stay with out paved roads or working drainage programs. In the meantime, waste assortment stays inadequate, regardless of town producing as much as 70 tons of rubbish each day.
Ilric Augustave, a former mayor, mentioned the continued use of insufficient tools and the shortage of coordination among the many metropolis corridor, the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications (MTPTC) and the Ministry of Surroundings have exacerbated the shortage of dependable infrastructure.
“The judicial authorities should use the ULCC report back to prosecute the people who stole this cash; it’s a giant crime.”
Maryse Julien, Vendor at Port-de-Paix Seaside Market
Grassroots group Sove Nòdwès or “Save the Northwest,” based by diaspora members, has stuffed a number of the void. They’ve organized clean-up campaigns, bought a rubbish truck and tried to clear streets throughout patronal festivals and different festivities. However even their donated tools has suffered theft, delays and bureaucratic purple tape.
“Authorities are asking us for greater than $13,000 to launch a donated rubbish truck from customs,” mentioned the group president, Amicy Clavaroche. “We get no assist from the native authorities.”
With storms intensifying and sanitation declining, the folks of Port-de-Paix say they will’t afford one other 12 months of inaction and impunity for many who abuse public belief.