12964: On Aristide DGI Inspection: Slavin (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: PSlavin@unicefusa.org

Just a quick footnote to this week's AP dispatch on Aristide's trip across
the street from the palace to the tax office (DGI):*

In his first term in 1991, Aristide made a similar trip to DGI to put the
fear of God into its director and staff re transparency and accountability.
Effective local politics then -- as were other 1991 transparency acts such
as the Préval Government taking full page ads in Le Nouvelliste and other
papers listing the names of the biggest debtors to DGI, E'DH, and Teleco --
including many of the big families. Also a 1991 speech when Aristide mocked
the perks of previous presidents (a speech made famous when Aristide's
pager (called beepers in the early 1990s) started to go off while he was
addressing the nation on TNH (a great example of just how new and unmanaged
the Aristide Presidency was)) -- he spoke of the number of cars the palace
had, and chauffeurs, and mechanics. The Préval Government had apparently
done an inventory of what was in the palace once they moved in 7 Feb 1991.
Aristide also spoke that night of his presidential check of $10,000 a month
-- and announced he would give his salary to a different charity or good
cause each month. He mocked the excesses of presidential luxury.  Looking
back on it, the period of Feb to July 91 (up until the Lafontant trial) may
have been a golden period for the country -- even Aristide and Cedras (and
the wife) got along.

Patrick

*I'm assuming the DGI office has not been relocated in recent years.