25316: Wharram - news - World Bank Approves $2M Grant for Haiti (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

> From Bruce Wharram <bruce.wharram@sev.org>


World Bank Approves $2M Grant for Haiti
Tuesday June 7, 6:50 pm ET
World Bank Approves $2 Million Grant to Help Haiti Manage Its Finances

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- The World Bank on Tuesday approved a US$2
million (euro1.63 million) grant to help Haiti manage its finances, warning
the country's economic recovery won't be effective without proper accounting
of public resources.

The money will fund programs to help the impoverished country write a budget
and link spending to specific development projects, the World Bank said. It
will also help create an anti-corruption unit to identify graft-prone public
agencies and write laws to fight the practice.

"Without careful and accountable management of public resources -- including
those supplied by donors -- poverty reduction, emergency relief, and
recovery will not be effective," said Caroline Anstey, the World Bank's
country director for the Caribbean.

International donors have pledged more than US$1 billion (euro800 million)
to help Haiti rebuild its shattered infrastructure following a violent
uprising that toppled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide and two severe floods
last year.

Only a fraction of the funds have been disbursed to date, a delay officials
blame in part on bureaucratic wrangling among donor nations and a lack of
local expertise to handle projects like road repairs.

The World Bank grant will finance programs to help Haiti's interim
government better coordinate aid projects with donors and communicate
economic policy to the public, the Washington-based institution said.


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