28485: Durban (correction): ONA payroll taxes (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: Lance Durban <lpdurban@yahoo.com>

Just a quick correction on point #6 of the 7 low-cost remedies for
Haiti that I earlier posted.   I stated that ONA (the Haitian "social
security system") takes a 3% deduction from the employee salaries plus
an additional 3% paid by the employer.  Wrong, it is 6% and 6%.

If they are willing to jump through the required hoops, Haitian workers
can borrow against their ONA accounts, but they can only borrow half of
the total paid in on their behalf... ie. the half that was deducted
from their salaries in the first place.  And, they are then charged a
fee on these borrowings.  As for the other half of the account, namely
the 6% of employer's contribution paid to ONA, my impression is that
few employees ever see any of that... historically it has been eaten up
in ONA overhead or public housing projects built by favored
sub-conttractors, where return on invested capital is not monitored
very well.

That is my impression, however as far as I know ONA does not publish
its accounts, so I could be wrong.  Greater financial transparency in
ONA would be most welcome.

Lance Durban