National Council of Telecommunications - Haiti Observer Blog

Jean Rene Duperval, a senior telecommunications official in Haiti whom everyone highly thought of was found guilty on corruption charges of having received a bribe from two Miami based companies by the names Cinergy and Terra, in order to give them a lucrative long-distance phone contracts in the Caribbean nation. Evidence at his trial in March showed he took almost $500,000 in bribes. He was hired as Haiti Teleco's director of international relations by President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in 2003, is the first Haitian government official to be convicted at trial by the Justice Department under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The law prohibits American businesses from paying bribes to foreign businesses and government officials.

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One excuse that the Haitian government has been spreading every time there is a kidnapping case in Haiti is that the government does not have control over the cell phones the criminals use to process their transaction such as contacting family members, requesting ransom, and actually getting compensation for the crime.

Is the Haitian Government soft on crime?

Hopefully a close regulation of the sale of mobile phones and SIM cards in Haiti will make it harder for these criminals. Actually, this is what the Secretary of State for Public Security, Réginald Delva, thinks. As a matter of fact, the Secretary of State for Public Security had for officials of the National Council of Telecommunications (CONATEL) that from now on to take the necessary steps to ensure that all sales of cell phones is registered and asked the National Identification Office (ONI) to help him identify criminals. Any operator of cell phone are now required to control the pre-activation of SIM cards.

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