16296: Simidor: Re: Haiti Reborn / Lavalas Corruption, Simidor comments (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Daniel Simidor <karioka9@mail.arczip.com>


How Lavalas Rips Millions from Foreign Loans

It’s easy as one-two-three.  Inter-American Development Bank
director, Gerard Johnson, is very affirmative: “funds would go
straight to contractors and would be monitored by the bank.”  But
to work around those restrictions, the Lavalas mafia only need to
set up their own construction and service companies, and then to
bid lower than everybody else (confident that the government
and/or the bank will have to come up with more money, otherwise
the roads/projects will remain unfinished).  This kind of
corruption ran rampant in 1995-1998, the last time Lavalas was
flush with foreign loans and grants.

Does IDB know any of this?  In 1998, the World Bank suspended a
$50 million loan for road construction because of “mismanagement
and suspected corruption.”  The World Street Journal reported
that: “the discovery of major irregularities in awarding contracts
for some of the roadwork led to the suspension of the loan last
October. A US$6million portion of the loan was then declared
a ‘misprocurement’ in January (1999), and the bank demanded its
money back.”

Why is Melinda Miles of Haiti Reborn so eager to dispel
any “misconception” that Lavalas will now grow fat off the IDB
loans?  There are enough tales of “insider dealings,” and enough
abandoned or unfinished roads and projects in Haiti, to at least
err on the side of caution.  But Ms. Miles, apparently, has more
faith in the “strict monitoring and evaluation procedures” of the
lending institutions than the lending institutions themselves.
Says the director of one such anti-corruption program: “While
audits are required by IFIs [international financial
institutions], they are generally innocuous, untimely and
therefore useless. They furnish IFIs with only cosmetic
accountability.” Contrary to Ms. Miles’ assurances, the lending
institutions do not assign enough staff or resources for adequate
monitoring.  In some cases, it is the very independent monitoring
firms appointed by the lending institutions that are caught taking
bribes. “There is always somebody who pays, and international
business is generally the main source of corruption,” affirms
George Soros.

According to an issue paper by the People's Health Assembly,
audits often amount only to looking at the books.  The US
Government Accounting Office concluded in April 2000 that the
World Bank “does not have reasonable assurance that project funds
are spent as intended.” The Haitian government has recently
entered an agreement for a staff-monitored program with the IMF.
But the primary focus of this agreement is the implementation of
the Fund’s neoliberal program (privatization of state assets,
reduction in public spending, etc), rather fighting corruption.
The privatization of public enterprises worldwide is in fact a
happy market for corruption that brings together bribe-takers (so-
called civil servants in impoverished countries like Haiti) and
wealthy multinational bribe-givers.  (One such stellar Haitian
civil servant is Mr. Jocelerme Privert who was dismissed as head
of the national tax office on June 22, 1999 following insistent
demands from employees on the grounds of alleged corruption (Le
Monde, 22 July 1999), only to be reappointed by the new Aristide
administration, first as Secretary of State for Finances and
currently as Minister of Interior and Territorial Assemblies.)

Why is Lavalas now so giddy with joy?  Why are Lavalas chimères
and so-called OP leaders congratulating each other and
gloating “We won! We won?”  Why in such vital matters, asks
Chamberlain, are there more rumors than facts?  And why is there
such a culture of secrecy around Lavalas corruption?  Because
those in the know, including some entrepreneurs who got jipped the
last time around, are keeping mum and swearing to play their cards
right this time. Soon it will be feeding time for Lavalas grands
mangeurs and petits mangeurs alike. . . .

Haiti Reborn, since their bogus “independent monitoring” of the
2000 elections in Haiti, has done much to blur the distinction
between foreign lobbying a la Ira Kurzban, and genuine solidarity
work.

Daniel Simidor