Haiti: Proceedings Against Corrupt Ex-Officials Continue

On Wednesday, official sources stated that the judicial process against former high-ranking officials for misappropriation of public assets continues in Haiti, where corruption is one of the scourges bleeding the Caribbean nation.

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With the imprisonment of former deputy Cholzer Chancy by order of examining magistrate Al Duniel Dimanche, the wheel of justice continues to turn in the country, although there are reservations among the population as to whether all those involved in the case will answer to the law.

Chancy, former president of the Lower House, after his arraignment on Monday, January 22, spent his first night at the Pétion-Ville police station.

Other former officials are being targeted by Judge Dimanche, who has ordered them to be banned from leaving the country.

The list includes former presidents such as Jocelerme Privert and Michel Joseph Martelly, former prime ministers such as Laurent Salvador Lamothe and Jean-Max Bellerive, former ministers and former deputies.

The tweet reads, "Judicial saga in Haiti: Ensemble Contre la Corruption (ECC) believes that "the actions of investigating judge Al Duniel Dimanche violate citizens' judicial guarantees and the principles of the rule of law and the fight against corruption." 

Recently, the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) was notified of the arrest warrant for 37 Haitian political personalities implicated in this investigation.

The judge's decision to request the arrest of the defendants to the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police has, among other objectives, to avoid unforeseen events in the process he is carrying out on what happened in the National Equipment Center (CNE).

The scandal follows the publication of reports by the Anti-Corruption Unit (ULCC), according to which the State lost about four billion gourdes (US$ 30.3 million) due to these and other acts considered illegal.

One of the ULCC documents revealed that 78 CNE equipment were embezzled by several political and parliamentary personalities.

These public goods were used for strictly private and personal purposes, said the ULCC, and recommended to the justice system to take legal action for misappropriation of state property.

The investigation focused on the governmental project Caravan of Change promoted by the assassinated president Jovenel Moïse and for which the Ministry of Public Works, Transport and Communications, the National Center for Solid Waste Management and the CNE received equipment.

According to the document which analyzed the permanence of the equipment in only two of the 10 departments, at least 78 of these devices are not currently controlled by the CNE, and others are destroyed.