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Don Cherry tweets about the millions in Canadian aid to Haiti: 'Are we nuts?'

dudeone

By dudeone
in Off-Topic General

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Kamero89 Abbotsford Star

Kamero89

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As Canadians it is our job to make the world a better place. Do we need to fix things here? Absolutely, but getting other human beings food and shelter is the right thing to do.

Harper spent A LOT on that useless jet, I did not hear Grapes complaining about that.

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woofwoofmoomoo Junior Prospect

woofwoofmoomoo

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I have always thought we should send lumber and construction workers to Haiti and build them earthquake/hurricane resistant structures .. use our money to create jobs here, and there, and get some return in income tax returns .. rather than blindly sending "cash" .. I am sure the corruption there siphons off the majority of our donations ..

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Mr.DirtyDangles Canucks Franchise Player

Mr.DirtyDangles

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I have always thought we should send lumber and construction workers to Haiti and build them earthquake/hurricane resistant structures .. use our money to create jobs here, and there, and get some return in income tax returns .. rather than blindly sending "cash" .. I am sure the corruption there siphons off the majority of our donations ..

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Coda Abbotsford Star

Coda

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Haiti: Where is the Money? - Researcher Version

By Bill Quigley and Amber Ramanauskas

Haiti, a close neighbor of the US with over nine million people, 700 plus miles from Miami, was devastated by earthquake on January 12, 2010. Hundreds of thousands were killed and many more wounded.

Before the quake, Haiti was already the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the most impoverished in the world. After? Conservative estimates for the cost of reconstructing Haiti were nearly $14 billion, which confirmed the earthquake as "likely to be the most destructive natural disaster in modern times."1 <clicking first footnotes link will bring up all footnotes on separate page

The United Nations Special Envoy to Haiti estimated in June 2011 that international donors gave Haiti over $1.6 billion in relief aid since the earthquake (about $155 per Haitian) and over $2 billion in recovery aid (about $173 per Haitian) over the last two years. Before the earthquake international donors were giving Haiti assistance at a rate of about $92 per person (these rates count expenditures on UN troops). International assistance after the earthquake was four times as large as the Haitian government annual budget. 2

But two years later, over half a million people remain homeless in hundreds of informal camps, a majority of the tons of debris from destroyed buildings still lays where it fell, and cholera, a preventable disease, was introduced into the country and is now an epidemic killing thousands and sickening hundreds of thousands more. 3 Haiti today looks like the earthquake happened two months ago, not two years.

Haitians ask the same question as the US Congress, "Where is the money?"

Where did the money go?

It turns out that almost none of the money that the general public thought was going to Haiti actually went directly to Haiti. Only 1 percent of the money went to the Haitian government. Likewise extremely little went to Haitian companies or Haitian non-governmental organizations. Haitians, by and large, were not even consulted about the relief efforts. Most of the money which was spent went to outside governments, international aid agencies, and big well connected non-governmental organizations. Some went to for profit companies whose business is disasters. A lot of the pledged money has never been actually put up. And a lot of the money which was put up has not yet been spent.

Haitians, whether through their Haitian government, Haitian NGOs, or Haitian companies, had no control over how the money in Haiti has been spent. Despite a near total lack of control, it is likely that the failures in Haiti will be blamed on the Haitians themselves in the normal "blame the victim" reaction. Haiti will be blamed despite poor planning, poor execution, and the siphoning off of funds by international NGOs and private companies by the international community.

This article illustrates some of these problems. For those who wish to go into more depth, the best source of information on this topic is the Center for Economic and Policy Research. They have an excellent project called Haiti Reconstruction Watch which keeps track of developments in great detail. The Janet Reitman article in Rolling Stone is a good overview and for on the ground reports, Haiti grassroots watch is the best.

Little Aid Went to the Haitian Government or Haitians

The Haitian government was bypassed in the relief effort. Haitian contractors received few contracts. The Haitian people were not consulted on the best way to spend the money.

Look at US aid. Right after the earthquake the US allocated $379 million in aid and sent in 5000 troops. 4 The US ultimately sent 22,000 military members to Haiti.5The US has allocated nearly $2.7 billion dollars for Haiti earthquake relief and reconstruction, roughly $1.6 billion for relief and $1.140 billion for reconstruction.6

For example, it was quickly discovered that of the $379 million in initial US money for Haiti, most was not really money going directly, or in some cases even indirectly, to Haiti. The Associated Press (AP) documented as early as January 2010 that thirty three cents of each of these US dollars for Haiti was actually given directly back to the US to reimburse ourselves for sending in our military. The US almost totally bypassed the elected government of Haiti and sent less than a penny of each dollar of aid to the government. Forty two cents of each dollar went to private and public non-governmental organizations like Save the Children, the UN World Food Program and the Pan American Health Organization.7

International assistance generally followed the same pattern. The UN Special Envoy for Haiti reported that of the $2.4 billion in humanitarian funding, 34 percent was provided back to the donor's own civil and military entities for disaster response, 28 percent was given to UN agencies and non-governmental agencies (NGOs) for specific UN projects, 26 percent was given to private contractors and other NGOs, 6 percent was provided as in-kind services to recipients, 5 percent to the international and national Red Cross societies, 1 percent was provided to the government of Haiti, four tenths of one percent of the funds went to Haitian NGOs. 8

In August of 2010, the US Congressional Research Office reported the US planned to reimburse US governmental agencies for $1.5 billion in relief and disaster assistance funding for Haiti. Of this $655 million was for the Department of Defense, $220 million to Department of Health and Human Services to provide grants to individual US states to cover services for Haitian evacuees, $350 million to USAID disaster assistance, $150 million to the US Department of Agriculture for emergency food assistance, and $15 million to the Department of Homeland Security for immigration fees. 9

Haitian companies capable of providing relief and reconstruction services were bypassed in the relief process just like the Haitian government. The Center for Economic and Policy Research analyzed all the 1490 contracts awarded by the US government after the January 2010 earthquake until April 2011 and found only 23 contracts went to Haitian companies. Overall the US had awarded $194 million to contractors, $4.8 million to the 23 Haitian companies, about 2.5 percent of the total. On the other hand, contractors from the Washington DC area received $76 million or 39.4 percent of the total. 10

Haitian civil society was shut out of the process as well. Not only did Haitian NGOs not receive any real percentage of the relief funds, it was clear from the very beginning that the international community was not even really trying to listen to Haitians. Refugees International reported in early March 2010 that locals were having a hard time getting access to the international aid operational meetings about Haiti which were happening inside the UN compound. "Haitian groups are either unaware of the meetings, do not have proper photo-ID passes for entry, or do not have the staff capacity to spend long hours at the compound." 11 Others reported that these international aid coordination meetings were not even being translated into Creole, the language of the majority of the people of Haiti. 12

Another example of the exclusion of Haitians is the Haiti Neighborhood Return and Housing Reconstruction Framework drafted by the Interim Haiti Redevelopment Commission in September 2010. The framework, which was supposed to guide reconstruction, was not even published in draft form in Creole so local people could review it, did not realistically address the needs of Haitian renters (more than half the people displaced), and internally displaced people (the hundreds of thousands in the homeless camps) were not even consulted. 13

Little of the US Haiti reconstruction money has been spent

A May 2011 GAO report on all the $1.14 billion of US money allocated by Congress for Haiti reconstruction found there were many plans for the money but only 20 percent or $184 million had even been obligated, most of this money, $120 million was transferred to the Haiti Reconstruction Fund. 14 Nearly two years after the quake, less than 1 percent of the $412 million in US funds specifically allocated for infrastructure reconstruction activities in Haiti had been spent by USAID and the US State Department and only 12 percent has even been obligated according to a November 2011 report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO). 15

Private NGOs and Companies Scramble for Haiti Money

From the very beginning the disaster in Haiti was looked upon as a business opportunity.

Less than a month after the quake hit, the US Ambassador Kenneth Merten sent a cable titled "THE GOLD RUSH IS ON" as part of his situation report to Washington. In this February 1, 2010 document, made public by The Nation and Wikileaks, Ambassador Merten reported the President of Haiti met with former General Wesley Clark for a sales presentation for InnoVida Holdings LLC, a Miami-based company that builds foam core houses. 16

Capitalizing on the disaster, Lewis Lucke, a high ranking USAID relief coordinator, met twice in his USAID capacity with the Haitian Prime Minister immediately after the quake. He then quit the agency and was hired for $30,000 a month by a Florida corporation Ashbritt and a prosperous Haitian partner to lobby for disaster contracts. Locke said "it became clear to us that if it was handled correctly the earthquake represented as much an opportunity as it did a calamity…" 17 Ashbritt and its Haitian partner were soon granted a $10 million no bid contract. 18 Lucke said he was instrumental in securing another $10 million contract from the World Bank and another smaller one from CHF International before their relationship ended up in court when Lucke sued Ashbritt and his Haitian partner for nearly $500,000 in bonuses for the contracts he helped them land. 19

Other private groups in the US also immediately started lobbying for a share of the Haiti money. In January, the US military had to suspend medical evacuations of critically injured Haitians to hospitals in Florida after officials there formally asked the US to pay some of the medical costs of care. 20 Florida was ultimately reimbursed more than $5 million in Haiti relief funds for helping Haitians. The Orlando Sanford Airport, which handles a million visitors a year, received $583,000 in federal funds for receiving 9500 evacuees plus volunteers and staff. Contrast this with the Miami International airport which handled more than four times as many passengers and did not request similar federal funds, according to records reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel. Federal relief funds reimbursed the airport for $32,000 in new carpets, $160,000 in landing and ramp fees, $24,000 to reimburse the airport director for his time, and $223,000 in other staff time. 21

The American Red Cross reported receiving $486 million in donations for Haiti as of June 2011. It said it either spent or signed agreements to spend two-thirds or $330 million on relief and recovery efforts, though specific details are difficult to come by. 22 Within weeks, the American Red Cross, which before the earthquake had 15 people in Haiti, had raised nearly $200 million for relief operations in Haiti. Partners in Health, which pre-earthquake had 5000 people working in Haiti, raised about $40 million. 23 The CEO of American Red Cross has a salary of over $500,000 per year. 24 As of August 2011, the American Red Cross had spent less than half the money it raised for relief and reconstruction in Haiti. 25 In March 2010 the AP reported "Tens of millions…went to U.S.-based aid groups. While much of that bought food and other necessities for Haitians, it often did so from U.S. companies — including highly subsidized rice growers whose products are undercutting local producers, driving them out of business." 26

Rolling Stone, in an excellent article, reported on one $1.5 million dollar contract to the NY based consulting firm Dalberg Global Development Advisors. Dalberg's team, according to Glenn Smucker, an anthropologist specializing in Haiti charged with briefing the team, "had never lived overseas, didn't have any disaster experience or background in urban planning… never carried out any program activities on the ground…" and only one of them spoke French. Despite this, the group was assigned the task of doing an assessment of a specific land area where the US hoped to create new communities in an attempt to depopulate Port-au-Prince. USAID reviewed Dalberg's work and found that "it became clear that these people may not have even gotten out of their SUVs. Indeed one area Dalberg's team found habitable was a small mountain with an open-mined pit, a severe 100 foot vertical cliff and ravines." 27

An example of the politicization of this process can be found in the $8.6 million joint contract between the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance with the private companies CHF and Project Concern International for debris removal in Port au Prince. 28 CHF is politically well-connected international development company with annual budget of over $200 million. The CEO was paid $451,813 in 2009. 29 PCI is a $30+ million dollar international aid group whose CEO earned $263,219 in compensation in 2009. 30 CHF's connection to Republicans and Democrats is illustrated by its board secretary, Lauri Fitz-Pegado, a partner with the Livingston Group LLC. The Livingston Group is headed by the former Republican Speaker-designate for the 106th Congress, Bob Livingston, doing lobbying and government relations. 31 Ms. Fitz-Pegado was appointed by President Clinton to serve in the Department of Commerce and served as a member of the foreign policy expert advisor team on the Obama for President Campaign. 32 CHF "works in Haiti out of two spacious mansions in Port au Prince and maintains a fleet of brand new vehicles" according to Rolling Stone. 33

Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton announced a fundraising venture for Haiti on January 16, 2010. 34 As of October 2011, the fund had received $54 million in donations. 35 It has partnered with several Haitian and international organizations. Though most of its work appears to be admirable, it has donated $2 million to those constructing a $29 million luxury hotel in Petionville. 36

The reconstruction has been exceedingly slow. A December 2011 report issued by the International Red Cross found that over 100,000 homes had been completely destroyed and another 200,000 badly damaged. As a result, 1.5 million people, 20 percent of Haiti, needed shelter after the earthquake. The international community responded by providing hundreds of thousands of tarpaulins, two tarps per family, by May 2010, three and a half months after the earthquake. Though few homes are being repaired, small temporary shelters, about 12 feet by 16 feet, are being constructed at a rate of about 7000 per month. With over a half a million people still under tarps, shelter is a long way off. 37

An April 19, 2011 audit by the USAID Office of the Inspector General (OIG) looking at USAID efforts to provide transitional housing found that grantees completed only 7,179 transitional shelters, 22 percent of their target number, and some of those shelters were substandard. USAID made 16 grants for shelter totaled $138 million and $37.8 million had been disbursed as of January 1, 2011. USAID issued grants were based on unsolicited non-competitive proposals and the largest were awarded to Catholic Relief Services, Cooperative Housing Foundation International and World Vision. 38

Critics of the non-governmental organizations abound. ``The NGOs still have something to respond to about their accountability, because there is a lot of cash out there,'' said Nigel Fisher, the United Nation's chief humanitarian officer in Haiti. ``But what about the $1.5 to $2 billion that the Red Cross and NGOs got from ordinary people, and matched by governments, etc.? What's happened to that? And that's where it's very difficult to trace those funds.'' 39

The International Community and Haiti

International efforts to assist Haiti have been characterized by the same themes of bypassing the Haitian government and basing their charitable giving through international public and private non-governmental organizations.

In a January 2010 meeting in Montreal, the international community agreed to launch a 10 year rebuilding campaign for Haiti. But they refused to commit specific amounts of money or plans until concerns about mismanagement and the ability of Haiti's government were resolved. Experts suggested making the UN the clearinghouse for the money and closely tracking it. 40

The international community decided it was not going to allow the Haiti government to direct the relief and recovery funds and insisted that two institutions be set up to approve plans and spending for the reconstruction funds going to Haiti. The first was the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC) and the second is the Haiti Reconstruction Fund (HRF).

The performance of the two international commissions, the IHRC and the HRF has also been poor. The Miami Herald noted that as of July 2011, the $3.2 billion in projects approved by the IHRC only five had been completed for a total of $84 million. The Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), which was severely criticized by Haitians and others from its beginning, has been effectively suspended since its mandate ended at the end of October 2011. The Haiti Reconstruction Fund was set up to work in tandem with the IHRC, so while its partner is suspended, it is not clear how it can move forward.

In March 2010, UN countries pledged $5.3 billion over two years and a total of $9.9 billion over three years in a conference March 2010. The money was to be deposited with the World Bank and distributed by an internationally controlled fund called the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission Fund (IHRC). The IHRC was co-chaired by Bill Clinton and Jean-Max Bellerive, then the Haitian Prime Minister. 41 The IHRC was created by executive order of Haitian President Preval to exist for a period of 18 months beginning on April 21, 2010.42

This money effectively bypassed all the Haitian public governmental bodies. 43

By July 2010, Bill Clinton reported only 10 percent of the pledges had been given to the IHRC. 44

The Miami Herald noted that as of July 2011, the $3.2 billion in projects approved by the IHRC only five had been completed for a total of $84 million. 45

The IHRC was supposed to have equal number of Haitian and international members for voting purposes (half Haitian representatives and half representatives of donors which pledged more than $100 million) have an audit and performance office, expedited authority to issue title to lands, gives the President of Haiti authority to veto decisions within ten business days of notice and barring that the actions will be deemed confirmed. Upon its demise, the power and authority of the IHRC was supposed to cease and be transferred to the government of Haiti. 46

The twelve Haitian members of the IHRC complained that they were not being communicated with by the IHRC staff and Executive Committee during the board meeting of December 2010. President Clinton agreed that more communication would be forthcoming but said the Haitian board members needed to support the IHRC better. 47

Rolling Stone quoted a Haitian senior international aid officer as saying "Behind closed doors, the feeling of the Haitian government was this was just another foreign group they'd given permission to come in and take over their country. But what could they do? The Haitian government knew it didn't have the capacity to tackle this reconstruction on its own. 48

Oxfam criticized the IHRC one year after the earthquake saying it had neither the staff nor the technical capacity to lead the reconstruction. 49

Feeling that they functioned solely as rubber stamps, the Haitian members complained of being "completely disconnected from the activities of the IHRC"; given no background information on the projects they are supposed to fund; given no time to "read, nor analyze, nor understand- and much less respond intelligently- to projects submitted"; no follow-up on the previously approved millions in funds; and not knowing the names of IHRC consultants nor their respective tasks." As if to prove their point the IHRC meeting, held in the Dominican Republic, continued despite the absence of co-chair and Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive. 50

In May 2011, the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) found the IHRC not fully operational even though it had only five months left on its original mandate. Among the reasons cited for the IHRC's operational impediments were "delays in staffing the commission and defining the role of its Performance and Anticorruption Office- which IHRC officials cited as key to establishing the commission as a model of good governance." At the time of the audit IHRC had approved projects estimated at $3 billion, only 30 % of the total of donor pledges. The audit also found that the IHRC failed to direct funding to projects prioritized by Haitians. For example the Haitian government identified almost equal funds for agriculture and rubble removal, however the IHRC approved seven times more funding for agriculture projects. While the Haitian "Action Plan" outlined a need for more than $800 million to rebuild and improve Haitian government institution the IHRC approved only $113 million. On the other hand, IHRC approved $680 million in road construction projects while the Haitian's "Action Plan" estimated that they only needed $180 million. As a result of the IHRC's disregard for priorities set by the Haitian people, the GAO audit found that the IHRC approved projects were not "providing the assistance that is most urgently needed". The IHRC does not have the power to tell donors which areas to fund and has difficulty convincing donors to pledge to the areas needed like rubble removal. 51

Its current status is up in the air as of the writing of this article. The 18 month mandate for the commission was due to end Friday October 28, 2011. As of October 22, 2011, no request from Haitian president to extend it was received. 52 The IHRC website (checked December 27, 2011) showed its last action was August 17, 2011. Its board minutes have not been updated since December 2010. The link for latest news is blank. An email to its press contacts has not been responded to. In July 2011, Martelly announced he intended to extend the mandate of the IHRC for another year. The Miami Herald noted in July 2011 that of the $3.2 billion in projects approved by the IHRC only five had been completed for a total of $84 million. 53 The IHRC website, checked on Dec 29, 2011, contains a notice that because its mandate expired October 21, 2011 "Pending a decision of the Haitian Parliament regarding the future of this institution, a team is currently dealing with day to day business. The (re)submission of project proposals remains closed until further notice."

Haiti Reconstruction Fund

The HRC is another part of the puzzle of where the money comes from, where it goes and who knows what is going on.

The Haiti Reconstruction Fund is yet another entity involved in the process. As of September 2011, the HRF reports pledges of $352 million in grants from donors to Haiti to be funneled through the HRF. 54 The HRF 2010-2011 annual report, issued after 12 months of work, states the HRF has been able to "mobilize over US$350 million for housing, debris removal and management, disaster risk reduction, regional development, budget support, job creation, agriculture, and education. The funds have been mobilized, coordinated and allocated in support of priorities set by the Government and its recovery commission." 55

The HRF is administered by the World Bank as a pipeline for specific money to Haiti that has to go through one of three organizations – Inter-American Bank, the UN and the World Bank. The HRC is governed by a board made up of one representative from Haiti and representatives of the major donor countries that have put up at least $30 million minimum.

It is interesting to note that the HRF Steering Committee met only once during the period of July to September 2011 and that was "in conjunction with the 7th IHRC Board meeting on July 22nd, 2011" illustrating the overlap of those in charge of both institutions. 56

The HRC and the IHRC were designed to work together.

The way it is supposed to work is that projects are first approved by the IHRC then the HRF, then the donors actually get to choose what projects get the money, how the funds are to be dispersed, who will actually spend the money and how it is accounted for. With the IHRC suspended, it is not clear how the HRC will operate.

The most recent report posted by the HRC indicated that of the $352 million pledged by donors, $270 million has been allocated, and $222 million has been disbursed to approved projects. 57

What to do

The effort so far has not been based a respectful partnership between Haitians and the international community. The actions of the donor countries and the NGOs and international agencies have not been transparent so that Haitians or others can track the money and see how it has been spent. Without transparency and a respectful partnership the Haitian people cannot hold anyone accountable for what has happened in their country. That has to change.

The UN Special Envoy to Haiti suggests the generous instincts of people around the world must be channeled by international actors and institutions in a way that assists in the creation of a "robust public sector and a healthy private sector." Instead of giving the money to intermediaries, funds should be directed as much as possible to Haitian public and private institutions. A "Haiti First" policy can strengthen public systems, promote accountability, and create jobs and build skills among the Haitian people.58

Respect, transparency and accountability are the building blocks for human rights. Haitians deserve to know where the money has gone, what the plans are for the money still left, and to be partners in the decision-making for what is to come.

After all, these are the people who will be solving the problems when the post-earthquake relief money is gone.

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