U.S. to Haiti Give me my money back

Updated December 25, 2016 8:33 PM

In Haiti's 2015 presidential elections, the United States, along with other international bodies, provided a total of US$38 million to Haiti's Conseil Electoral Provisoire (Provisional Electoral Council, CEP). The U.S. spent $33 million on the 2015 elections and in last July, has threatened to withhold further funds, because during the last elections, political turmoil resulted massive frauds and unacceptable election results, and following that President Privert announced his decision to re-run the presidential race. Later, President Privert assured the public that the elections of October 9, 2016, will be funded nationally. He has affirmed that the $55 million needed for the elections is available in the public treasury. As per Finance Minister Yves Romain Bastien, the election money received for the last election was never in the hands of the Haitian authorities. He has also said that the upcoming polls would be largely paid for through funds collected from a port, the central bank and Haiti's National Credit Bank. Funding of other government programs would be largely excluded because the port and two banks are good profit making concerns which they ordinarily do not share with the state, he added.

As per John Kirby, the State Department spokesman, the United States had informed Haiti about the decision on July 1, 2016 that Washington does not have any plan to fund for the upcoming two more electoral rounds of presidential and legislative elections scheduled in 2016 and 2017. However, Kirby has mentioned that this suspension should not be construed as a "reduction in US support for the development of Haiti."

However, the total of $33 million that came from the United States had always been held in a trust fund managed by the United Nations Development Program. Out of that, a total $8 million balance remained in the fund, of which the contribution of the U.S government was $2 million. In last July, the U.S President Obama had demanded to return that money given in 2015.

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Jean C Alexandre says...

We finally have a finance minister that we can count

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U.S. to Haiti Give me my money back

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