By Robert Berrouët-Oriol
Linguist-terminologist
Montreal, May 2, 2024
Published on April 20, 2024 on several sites in Martinique, France and the United States, dealing with a major social subject and widely distributed by email to thousands of recipients, our article “ The National Education Fund in Haiti, a mafia system of corruption created by the neo-Duvalierist PHTK » had a considerable impact as evidenced by the correspondence sent to us. Through its analytical and documented approach, this article has highlighted the fact that National Education Fund (FNÉ), like the PSUGO, is at the top of a vast enterprise of corruption and misappropriation of state financial resources in the Haitian national education system. The numerous and relevant documentary references that we had provided, in addition to clarifying and supporting our analysis, allowed readers to better understand what constitutes the systemic corruption that is rife in the National Education Fund. This article deepens the analysis developed in that of April 20, 2024 and amply explores, with supporting documents, one of the major characteristics of the FNÉto knowthe invisibility of financial data which is at the heart of the system of systemic corruption at the National Education Fund. We thus demonstrate that administrative and financial management in FNÉ with a work a modeled system against a backdrop of corruption and sheltered fromLaw of August 17, 2017 “Creating the organization and operation of the National Education Fund (FNÉ)”.
The observation that the official website of Ministry of Educationsupervisory institution of FNÉis completely silent on the financial state of National Education Fundand also on possible accounting auditsof its financial statements bythe Superior Court of Auditors orby an external auditor for the period 2017 to…2024 is highly significant of the managerial opacity established both at the National Education Fund than at the Ministry of National Education. As we will see later in this article, such managerial opacity blocks the requirements of theLaw of August 17, 2017and it is one of the major characteristics of thevast enterprise of corruption and embezzlement of state financial resources in the Haitian national education system.
In the depths of our documentary research on the corruption that rages in National Education Fundwe have taken note of a very enlightening document dated April 25, 2024. It is the “Press note from a group of Haitian human rights institutions,” Together against corruption “relating to a disruptive governance in the country at the time of the establishment of the Presidential Transitional Council (CPT)”. The press note records the following information: “At the time of preparing this press note, a financial scandal broke out in National Education Fund (FNE). ECC[«[«Together against corruption »]spoke with the current director general of the institution who told him that monthly salary of 650,000 gourdes that he receives was in force well before his arrival at the head of the FNE, in December 2021. And the decision to grant such exorbitant emoluments to the director general of the FNE was validated by the Board of Directors, without any consideration of the salary scale in force in the public service. [Les soulignés en gras et italiques sont de RBO]
The press note of “ Together against corruption » also specifies the following: “At this stage, several questions and other opinions are permitted: (a) What explains such a level of salary which nominally exceeds that of the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the ministers etc. ? (b) Why are the salaries granted to employees of autonomous public bodies not aligned with the civil service scale? (c) Why are the FNE Board of Directors, or even the OMRH, the IGF and the CSCCA not commenting on this issue? » [Fin de citation] We will return later to the meaning and scope of the information contained in the press note of “ Together against corruption ».
Having observed, on the official website ofFonds national education, the absence of financial statements and the non-existence of accounting audits, we sent by email a request for information to the Bank of the Republic of Haiti, the Ministry of the Economy and Finance, the Superior Court of Accounts and Administrative Litigation and the Anti-Corruption Unit. THE National Education Fundhaving been created in 2017, we asked these institutions to provide us with official documents relating to (1) autotal amounts taken every year on incoming phone calls for the period from 2017 to 2024; (2) au total amounts taken every year on the money transfers to Haiti for the period from 2017 to 2024; (3) tofinancial state of National Education Fund for the period from 2017 to 2024, and (4) to accounting audits which would have been carried out by the Superior Court of Auditors or by an external firm for the period from 2017 to 2024. At the time of writing this article, none of these institutions had formally responded to our request…
Despite what seems to be an old tradition of the Haitian public administration of not communicating administrative documents even when they are of public interest, we had access to a two-page document with the title: “ Bank of the Republic of Haiti. Financial Department – Financial Control Department. Monthly report of fees collected on international private transfers paid to the Treasury account. Established from July 28, 2011 to September 12, 2018 “. This document is interesting for several reasons: it provides precise figures on the total sums collected by the Bank of the Republic of Haiti on behalf of the National Education Fund from 2011 to 2016 and from 2017 to 2018.The FNÉ has only had a legal existence since 2017, with the adoption of the Law of August 17, 2017 : between 2011 and 2016 National Education Fund operated informally in the sense that it did not yet have the legal status of a state institution. This has led several institutions to already classify it, in 2011, among opaque instances of the Haitian Public Administration who illegally amass sums of money of undetermined amount and which are not recorded in the National Budget, which removes them from the control of Parliament. With the adoption of the Law of August 17, 2017the National Education Fundhas a legal operating framework, a board of directors, administrative staff and internal regulations, objectives, rights and obligations. Tables 1 and 2 are an indication of the total amounts collected on international private transfersby CONATEL for the Bank of the Republic of Haiti between 2011 and 2016 and from 2017 to 2018 which subsequently directs them to the Public Treasury. Tables 1 and 2 do not take into account the amounts taken from telephone calls from abroad because the documentary research that we carried out to write this article did not allow us to have access to documents describing the operations of withholding telephone calls.
TABLEAU 1 –Total sums invested in the “major areas of intervention” of the National Education Fund according to the declarations of its director general (2019-2024) + Breakdown of annual administrative costs
5 ANS (2019-2024)GOURDSDOLLAR USMOY/ 5 ANS GDES$$ USSPECIAL FREE EDUCATION PROGRAM3 147 598 12223 607 5764 721 515RENOVATION OF INFRASTRUCTURES2 775 914 12020 819 8764 163 975SCHOOL FURNITURE525 715 0003 942 961788 592SCHOOL CAFETERIA255 666 4221 917 546383 509UNIVERSITIES/RESEARCH.30 000 000225 00645 001UNIV./SCHOLARSHIPS (1500)285,500,000 over 5 years2 141 304428 261GRANTS (229)133 157 717998 708199 742TOTAL 7 153 551 381652 977730 595 BY PURSE (1500 bo.) 190 3331428286 *PER STUDENT (229 students) 581 4754361872 *Conversion rate: 133 GDES/US$1. ||The asterisk * refers to an annual average.ANNUAL ADMINISTRATIVE FEESCEO SALARY7 800 00058501 BUREAU (7 pers.)24 000 000180005 CABINET (17 pers.)49 000 000367509 TOTAL80 800 000606 015 Source 1: Statement from the Director General of FNÉ,press briefing of January 31, 2024,official website ofFonds national education ;Source 2: Hebdo 241is avril 2024.
TABLEAU 2 – National Education Fund / Bank of the Republic of Haiti: fees collected on international private transfers / 2011-2018
NUMBER OF TRANSFERSFEES COLLECTED of $1.50 in thousands of US dollarsJULY 2011-JUNE 2012743111 146JULY 2012-JUNE 2013831312469JULY 2013-JUNE 2014874513117JULY 2014-JUNE 20151092716392JULY 2015-JUNE 20161219818297JULY 2016-JUNE 20171345120176JULY 2017-JUNE 20181606224093TOTAL77127115690 Source: Bank of the Republic of Haiti. Financial management – Financial control department. Monthly report of fees collected on international private transfers paid to the Treasury account. Established from July 28, 2011 to September 12, 2018.
Analytical commentary – Table 1 provides very informative insight into the total sums invested in the “major areas of intervention” of the National Education Fund according to statements by its general director. These declarative data presented by the Director General of FNÉduring its press briefing on January 31, 2024, were not accompanied by the slightest official document attesting to their veracity: this observation is of primary importance because all the documentary research that we have carried out, including on the official website ofFonds national educationdid not make it possible to trace the financial state and even less the accounting audit reports of FNÉ. As we will see later in this article by examining the “ camouflage chain » at work FNÉwe are in the presence of an opaque financial management system which does not offer the tools to understand the public expenses one public body claims to have carried out to fulfill the mission de service public that gives him the Law of August 17, 2017.The statements of the general director of National Education Fundalso do not make it possible to know, with reference to official documents which can be consulted, whether the institution has actually fulfilled its mission, whether the sums injected into programs and activities have been spent rigorously, or even whether independent bodies have issued compliance reports regarding this or that achievement. For example, the general director of FNÉ declared that his institution would have invested2 775914 120 GDESover 5 years— 20 819876 $ US— in the renovation of school infrastructure. It would have been useful to provide documents listing the number of school infrastructures renovated, their geographical location, the number of students having benefited from these renovations as well as the technical reports issued by engineering firms attesting to compliance with the seismic standards. It would also have been useful to know if a call for tenders was issued with a view to choosing the firms that carried out the renovation of school infrastructure as well as the qualifications of these firms. It would have been just as useful to know whether the award of contracts to these firms was carried out by mutual agreement, which usually opens the door to favoritism and various forms of embezzlement. The same is true of the sums injected into the school canteens: how many students has this program, which is said to be national in scope, reached? Did it give priority to local, local products and allow the hiring of a workforce? local work? And on what criteria FNÉ was it based on awarding 1,500 school scholarships of the order of286 $ on annualized averageover 5 years(190 333 GDES ( 1428 $ US)?In a country which has around 3 million children in school, how can we explain that theFNÉ only granted 286 $ on annualized averagefor 1,500 school scholarships at the modest amount of 190,333 GDES (US$1,428)? In reference to the embezzlement scandal at PSUGO – program also created by the neo-duvalierist PHTK – but denounced by teachers and initially vilified by the ex-minister in fact of National Education Nesmy Manigat who, subsequently, reappointed him upon his return to the management of MENF In November 2022, what are the verifiable data relating to these 1,500 school scholarships? Is it aboutzonbi school scholarshipsas there were inPSUGOis it aboutzonbi schools, zonbi school directors, zonbi teachers and zonbi checks ? (on the vast embezzlement enterprise that is the PSUGOsee our article “ The education system exposed to multiple embezzlement at PSUGO », newspaper Le National, Port-au-Prince, March 24, 2022; see also the articles « Psugo, a threat to education in Haiti? (parts I, II and III) – A process of weakening of the education system », Ayitikale je (Akj), AlterPresse, July 16, 2014. See also on the same site, « The PSUGO, a planned catastrophe » (parts I to IV), August 4, 2016. Finally see the very well-documented article « Psugo, one of the biggest scams in the history of education in Haiti », by Charles Tardieu, Port-au-Prince, June 30, 2016). In our article of March 24, 2022 published in Haiti in the newspaper Le National,The education system exposed to multiple embezzlement at PSUGOwe have mentioned the links that exist between the PSUGO and the National Education Fund as follows: “According to a report from the Ministry of Education sent on December 22, 2014 to the newspaper Le Nouvelliste and which apparently presents “the annual results of the two (…) financial years 2011-2012 and 2012-2013, PSUGO is financed mainly thanks to the National Fund for Education (FNE), to the tune of 1.9 billion gourdes, and from the Public Treasury, to the tune of 800 million gourdes, for a total of 2.7 billion gourdes.” It is very revealing that two major institutions of the Haitian national education system, the FNÉ and the PSUGOare similarly and for the same reasons denounced by teachers, teaching unions and independent observers because of their opaque financial management and their opaque mechanisms for awarding and executing projects.
The second part of Table 1 presents the total amount, by category, of the “Annual Administrative Fees” of the National Education Fund. These administrative costs (80,800,000 GDES, or US$606,015) are extremely high for an autonomous body attached to a ministry, that of National Education. But what concerns the observer above all is the plethora of staff stationed in the office (7 people) and in the cabinet (17 people) of the FNÉ. This plethora is linked to the old and complex practices of favoritism, one of the faces of corruption in the Haitian public administration. Usually favoritism serves to “reward” those who are referred to as “beneficiaries of the system” and who serve as the transmission belt for embezzlement of public funds.
The second painting, “ National Education Fund / Bank of the Republic of Haiti: fees collected on international private transfers / 2011-2018 ”, is also very instructive. On the one hand, it attests to a clear increase from June 2012 to June 2018 in the number of transfers, i.e. 7,431 to 16,062. On the other hand, it attests to a clear increase of more than double the fees collected in thousands of US dollars, from June 2012 to June 2018, i.e. 11,146 to 24,093. Such an increase is reflected in the significant increase in the total amount of fees collected, which went from 11,146 to 115,690. Due to the sharp deterioration of the economic crisis from 2018 to 2024, it is possible to assume that during this period the volume of money transfers to Haiti has increased considerably. As a result, fees charged on private international transfers increased significantly, indicative hypothesisfrom 24,093 to 48,000. Such an increase is directly linked to the enormous economic weight of transfers from the Haitian diaspora to Haiti as attested by an official document from the Bank of the Republic of Haiti dated November 2019: “ Diaspora transfers and real exchange rate: the case of Haiti”. Thus, “(…) unrequited transfers to Haiti increased almost tenfold between 1998 and 2018 while their weight in relation to GDP increased from 8.8% to 32.5% over the same period. They are now, by far, the country’s main source of foreign exchange, representing 3.6 times the value of exports, 10 times that of development aid flows and 37 times the amount of foreign direct investment.
Prior to writing this article, we carried out methodical consultation of the official website ofFonds national education in order to know if a possible and recent update of the section “ Our action » gathered relevant data relating to financial state as well asthe audit of the financial statements National Education Fund.Section ” Our action » includes the following subsections: “Education financing”, “Infrastructure”, “Capacity building”, “Subsidies”, “School canteen” and “Intervention map”. When the user wishing to be informed of their content clicks on the title of each of these sub-sections, he obtains on the screen, for each of these sub-sections, an empty page including only the following information: “ Our action », « LatestPosts », et « There are no postsThe user wishing to be informed of the content of the aptly named section “ Information » – which includes the subsections “Newsletter”, “Funding mechanisms”, “Study support” and “Educational project financing” –, when he clicks on each of these subsections he obtains a page on the screen -blank screen including only the words…“ Transparency The user wishing to be informed of the content of the section “ Resources » – which includes the subsections “Documents”, “Reports and publications” and “Useful links” –, when he clicks on the title of each of these subsections, he obtains an empty screen page including only the mention ” Resources”. He therefore has access neither to the “Documents” nor to the “Reports and publications.” This ” information void »for so many sections of the official website ofFonds national educationis not fortuitous, it corresponds to a major strategic orientation, that of the invisibility of financial data a at the heart of the systemic corruption system of the National Education Fund.
The invisibility of financial data at the heart of the modeled system of systemic corruption at the National Education Fund
The documentary research that we carried out with a view to writing this article made it possible to consult, among others, the article “ Intervention by the Director General during the press briefing on April 16, 2024 » online on the official website ofFonds national educationand filed under the label “Communiqués”. This intervention takes up the essence of the remarks made during the press briefing of January 31, 2024 according to which “ The FNE reaffirms its commitment to education in Haiti “. As we have just seen in the course of this article, the information recorded during these press briefings is presented in the form of an indicative table, table 1. This faithfully reflects the most recent declarative data communicated by Jean Ronald Joseph, the current director of National Education Fundduring his press briefings on January 31, 2024 and April 16, 2024.
The « Review of the institution’s achievements over the last 5 years » provided by the general director of National Education Fund during the press briefing on January 31, 2024 is essentially declarative in nature. During this press briefing, he did not provide any official document attesting to the veracity of the figures he puts forward… Thus, Jean Ronald Joseph did not present (1)no official document attesting to the quantified and exhaustive assessment of the achievements of its institution “over the last five years”; (2) no official document attesting Financial Statements of its institution “over the last five years” carried out by the accounting department of the FNÉ ; (3)no official document attesting to the development of a accounting audit carried out, “over the last five years”, by an external firm as stipulated in the Law of August 17, 2017 “Creating the organization and operation of the National Education Fund (FNÉ)” in Chapter 2 (article 10(o) of Section I). This article reads: “ The Board of Directors has the responsibilities “(…) to examine the report of the external auditor, follow up on the opinions issued by the latter and have the audit report published within six months following the end of the financial year “. In this regard, the observation is obvious: the official website ofFonds national educationdoes not include any document attesting to the completion and publication of a “ audit report within six months of the end of the financial year » for the period 2017 to 2024. For the record, we will not lose sight of the fact that decree of May 17, 2005“organizing the central administration of the State” stipulates, in article 148, that financial control of all state administrations and autonomous bodies is exercised by the Court of Auditors. This decree also mentions in the same article that the use of private firms to carry out audits must be done with special authorization from the Court of Auditors.
THE declarative data provided by the Director General of National Education Fundduring his press briefing on January 31, 2024 deserve a more focused examination. In a more structural way, in the register of financial analysis which must take into account the sums collected for the FNÉ by Natcom, Digicel and Comcel, and which pass through the Bank of the Republic of Haiti and the Ministry of Finance, it would be necessary to examine thefinancial state and the financial statement audit reports of National Education Fundin order to highlight the reality of the system of financial management which takes place in this institution.Such an examination should be able to be rigorously carried out as long as we have two types of official documents: thefinancial stateand the financial statement audit reports of National Education Fund.
The first approach at the heart of this approach amounts to clearly circumscribing the notions of “ financial statement », d’« audit », d’« accounting audit “, of ” rapport d’audit » or «auditor’s report ».
For the reader unfamiliar with the vocabulary of financial management, it is useful to specify that theaudit is a “Written communication delivered by the auditor at the end of an audit mission”. The audit therefore results from the “Methodical, independent and documented examination of a process, in order to determine whether it meets the established criteria”. “We must not confuse auditing and verification, which does not have to be carried out by an independent third party. When the audit comes from outside the organization, the criteria are often determined by a norms. The audit can focus on a targeted activity or on all of an organization’s activities. Among the types of audits, note theIT auditl’quality auditl’technology audit and theaccounting audit “. (Great terminological dictionary of the Office québécois de la langue française)
L’accounting audit is the “Examination of accounting documents relating to the financial statements of a person, company or organization, carried out by a professional and independent third party in order to verify their compliance. The accounting audit makes it possible to control the accounts, but it also has a forecasting dimension, since it makes it possible to develop strategies to improve returns and avoid reproducing errors. (Great terminological dictionary of the Office québécois de la langue française)
And rapport d’auditor auditor’s report is, in the field of financial management of an institution, an evaluative analytical document for controlling financial state : “The report essentially consists of four elements: i) an introduction indicating the financial statements or other information covered by the report and setting out the respective responsibilities incumbent on the auditor and the management of the entity subject to the engagement , ii) a summary description of the nature and extent of the work carried out by the auditor, iii) mention of the accounting framework applied and iv) the expression of the auditor’s opinion on the financial or other statements information”. (Great terminological dictionary of the Office québécois de la langue française)
THE financial stateare made up of “Summary accounting documents prepared periodically, including in particular the balance sheet, the income statement (or income statement) and the cash flow statement (or financing table), supplemented by attached notes and explanatory tables in the appendix, and which contain financial or accounting information specific to an entity and presented in an organized manner. (Great terminological dictionary of the Office québécois de la langue française)By definitionand financial statement is aaccounting document which provides information on the situation of a company or an institution. This information may concern the state of its financial structurethe composition of its heritagethe evaluation of its performances and the measure of its profitability.Financial statements summarize in a clear and structured way the events that have affected a company throughout its existence.
In terms ofthe invisibility of financial dataat the heart of the system of systemic corruption National Education Fundwe must take every measure to ensure that the information contained in Table 1 amply illuminates the following major findings: (1)in the absence of a official document certifying the financial statements of the National Education Fund, only alleged expenses are listed ; (2 ) the total amounts collected for the FNEfrom 2017 to 2024 by telephone operators, Natcom, Digicel and Comcel, as well as those earned on money transfers to Haiti and which pass through the Bank of the Republic of Haiti and the Ministry of Finance, does not not part of the “assessment” presented during the Press briefing Jean Ronald Joseph, Director General of the National Education Fund, January 31, 2024 . (3)In other words, we are in the presence of a “balance sheet” listing declared amounts of expenditure in the absence of an exhaustive assessment of the sums collected by theNational Education Fund between 2017 and 2024 –or between December 2021, date of appointment of Jean Ronald Joseph to the general management of FNÉ and April 2024. Inside the communication system of the FNÉ,the ” organized blindness » therefore consists of a camouflage of all the sums collected between 2017 and 2024accompanied by the absence of the slightest official document attesting to the financial state and the realization of a accounting auditcovering the last fiscal year or carried out “during the last five years” by an external firm as stipulated in the Law of August 17, 2017.We are therefore in the presence of a real “ camouflage chain » and one of the questions induced by the observation of this device is the following: a senior state official, the director general of FNÉ–who perceives the “modest”salary of650,000 gourdes per month( US$4,875 monthly), and who systematically refrains from providing the total amount of sums collected for the FNE between 2021 and 2024 as well asfinancial state of its institution and the slightest report of financial audit–, is he above the law? Does he believe he is invested with the intoxicating virtues of “black-tie delinquency” authorizing him not to conform to the law? Law of August 17, 2017? This law, it must be further clarified, stipulates in chapter 2 (article 10.(o) of Section I), that “ The Board of Directors has the responsibilities “(…) to examine the report of the external auditor, follow up on the opinions issued by the latter and have the audit report published within six months following the end of the financial year “.The ” camouflage chain » was operational when, at a press conference on April 16, 2024, the director general of FNÉ asserted that “ The Fund acts as cashier (see the article “ FNE file: Jean Ronald Joseph clarifies », Vantbèf info, April 16, 2024). However, we know that as a general rule a cashier is well informed of the receipts of his cash register and that his primary function is not to distribute, if you want some, here are the amounts which are there. In this case, the current director of National Education Fund takes adventurous liberties with the truth and with the law itself since according to the Law of August 17, 2017(“Chapter 1, Section II, article 3) the FNÉ, who is in no way a “cashier”, has the mission of “participating in the effort of education for all” and managing the funds intended for the national education system. It has been noted that the titles of the main sections of theofficial website ofFonds national education includes, as we have seen previously, the mentions “Special free education program”, “Construction and renovation of school infrastructure”, “School furniture”, “School canteen”, “Universities” and “School subsidies It was also noted in Table 1 that the “ cloaking device » at workNational Education Fundcompletely ignores important budget items such as employee salaries, the institution’s rent, the cost of electrical energy provided by the EDH and/or by an autonomous energy system (” Inverter “, batteries and solar panels), the vehicle fleet including “official” and service vehicles, gasoline costs, travel costs domestically and abroad, the organization of internal events ( training sessions) and public activities (press conferences, etc.).
Furthermore, table 1 provides other enlightening lessons: even though the salary of the current director of National Education Fundis of650,000 gourdes per month( US$4,875 monthly) – without counting the juicy operating costs (company cars, gasoline, security service, travel, per diem –), the average rate of subsidies granted over the last five years to 1,500 students using study grants is… 1,428 Gourdes (US$286) For the same period (2019-2024) and in a related manner, the FNÉ subsidized the dissertations and theses of 229 students by “generously” granting them an annualized average of 4,361 Gourdes (US$872). These “generous” subsidies must be put into perspective with the data recently provided by the Hebdo24 site which consulted internal documents of the FNÉ : “(…) salary expenses within Mr. Joseph’s office total 24 million gourdes per year for seven peoplewhile his cabinet, composed of seventeen members, represents an annual expenditure of 49 million gourdes » (see the article « At the National Education Fund, money is wasted by “millions of gourdes” »,Hebdo24,1is avril 2024).
It is highly significant, as many teachers and observers of the education sector in Haiti maintain, that no one knows how much the total amount of money collected by telephone operators is et through money transfers on behalf of the National Education Fundbetween 2017 and 2024. The total amounts appearing as expenses declared in Table 1 –namely 7,153,551,381 GDES(US$53,651,635)–, would in reality represent only a small portion of the colossal sums that were collected between 2017 and 2024 on behalf of theNational Education Fund. We must take all measures that « Since its creation, the National Education Fund has (…) been the subject of strong criticism, particularly for its secretive management. Indeed, no one knows precisely how much money has already been collected in the name of this organization by the Central Bank and CONATEL (National Telecommunications Council). The lack of transparency in the management of FNÉ even aroused concern among certain sectors of civil society. On this subject, here is what the leader of the civil society initiative (ISC) Rosny Desroches had to declare on August 7, 2012: “The direction that this Fund is taking worries us as citizens, because it goes in the direction sense of the concentration of powers in the hands of the Executive, the weakening of the Ministry and the negation of the democratic principles of participation, control, transparency, balance of powers” (…) Initially, when the head of the state [Michel Martelly] launched the National Education Fund, he planned to collect at least 180 million dollars on phone calls and the same amount on transfers for a period of five years. Which amounts to saying that he wanted to collect an amount of 360 million dollars over five years to educate 1.5 million young Haitians deprived of education. And according to the calculations made by the government, when it combines the two taxes, they should bring in at least 8 million dollars per month to supply the FNE. (…) On September 30, 2011, Michel Martelly’s main advisor in education, George Mérisier (…) announced that 28 millions dedollars US had already been collected as part of the financing of the National Education Fund. (…) The real scandal broke out when, on January 7, 2012, in an article in the New York Times, Denis O’Brien, founder of Digicel, declared that his company had already paid 11.1 million US dollars at CONATEL. He also indicated that he had spoken to President Martelly about the rumors concerning the 26 million dollars missing and that he was going to make it a personal matter. He calls for an audit. In a note made public on January 10, 2012, the company confirmed the boss’s statements and announced that the transfer of December fees would be made on January 20 for an amount of 1.945 million US dollars. Which leads to 13 million US dollars the total amount of fees paid only by Digicel to CONATEL without counting the other telephone operators present on the Haitian market” (New York Times, January 7, 2012, cited in the article “Where is the money from the National Education Fund? », Haiti freedom, January 29, 2013). Still in terms of revenues raised for the National Education FundJoseph Frantz Nicolas, the outgoing director general of the Ministry of Education, publicly declared that “with a little more 7 billion 521 million gourdes paid into this Fund, more than 5 billion 513 million were invested from 2018 to 2021 in various projects and programs summarizing the use of these funds during his 3 years in office” (see the article “ Haiti – Education: National Education Fund, 5 1/2 billion invested in 3 years », Haiti freedom, December 22, 2021). Joseph Frantz Nicolas, however, did not provide any documented information on a possible accounting audit of the use of these huge recipes which, it must still be remembered, are not included in the Haitian State Budget and are not subject to any control by Parliament.For its part, the Haïti libre site, in the article dated January 27, 2022, “ Haiti – Education: Diaspora taxes. 3-year review of the FNE “, informs that “Jean Ronald Joseph, general director of the National Education Fund (FNE), summarized the efforts made by the FNE over the past 3 years which have contributed to the increase in the school offer in which more than 5.5 billion gourdes were invested (…)” in different actions (renovation of school buildings, school fees, etc.). Once again, the statements of the Director General of FNÉ were not accompanied by any documentation attesting to the veracity and legality of his statements, and even less financial state of its institution and any auditcomptable developed since his arrival at the FNÉ in 2021.
Let the story go National Education Fund created by the neo-Duvalierist PHTK recalls that established by the dictator François Duvalier to establish a vast system of corruption and “pumping” of the country’s financial resources through the Tobacco and matches board from the mid-1960s. One of the operational characteristics of this management of gangsterized squandering was the use of a “ non-tax account » creating a tobacco monopoly. This system was subsequently used in other government companies which served as a slush fund and for which no balance sheet was found. In his famous work “ Color ideology and social classes in Haiti » (Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1987), the sociologist Micheline Labelle teaches us that “a large part of extra-budgetary revenues, coming mainly from the Régie du tabac et des allettes and representing at least 40% of total revenues of the State, largely fuels spending on military costs not incurred by the defense budget (Girault, 1975: 62). We know that this organization is the major provider of funds for the repression budget and that the government still refuses the taxation of its accounts, despite requests for administrative rationalization. [p. 30] of all international organizations to date. Of theTobacco and matches board to the present National Education Fund which is not subject to the slightest control of the Haitian Parliament, moreover asphyxiated by the PHTK, the Duvalierist lineage is historically established and such historical data certainly does not appear in the criteria for attribution by the International of the large sums transferred to Haiti in the field of education. It is important to remember that the former ministerin fact of National Education Nesmy Manigat – brilliant economist by training, familiar with international administrative and financial management procedures and with his time as president of the Governance, Ethics, Risk and Financing Committee of the Parte global partnership for education–, was not without knowing that there is a direct historical relationship between the Tobacco and matches management and the National Education Fund. On this register, there is a common view among the best Haitian specialists who note that the “ selective amnesia » practiced with a master hand by the former minister in fact of National Education in the file of National Education Fund–as indeed in the file of PSUGO–, makes him the intellectual guarantor of the PHTK strategy in the reproduction of systemic corruption within the national education system.
On the register of corruption in National Education, at the bottom of the “squandering system »of the financial resources of the State modeled by the grandmother and other “legal bandits” of the neo-Duvalierist PHTK politico-mafia cartel, we are therefore in the presence of an opaque financial management systemwho articulates DIFFERENT STRATEGIES FOR INVISIBILIZING corruption and the misappropriation of financial resources in the education sector in Haiti. This involves, in all activities in the education sector likely to bring in dollars and/or euros, MAKE INVISIBLE AND NON-TRACABLE THE VARIOUS OPERATIONS OF DIVERSION OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES FROM THE EDUCATION SECTOR: AND TO ACHIEVE THIS WE NEED TO MAKE THEM HIDDEN, MAKE THEM UNAVAILABLE AND EXCEPT THEM FROM ACCOUNTING AUDITS.
NOTE – Mafia practices in the Haitian public administration in general and, particularly, in the national education system, are part of a broader structural framework, that of la corruptionestablished as governance systemet operating mode : this system works througha combination of legal relays and invisible and untraceable relayswhich ensure “productivity” and financial profitability. Located in the space between the Public Treasury and the National Education Fundthese relays instrumentalize the “voluntary blindness ”, so that the total amount of amounts collected (starting point: telephone operators and money transfer operators) is different from the total amount of sums that pass through by the Public Treasury (midpoint of arrival), and it is also different from the total amount of are declared speak FNÉ (point of arrival, the final recipient). This allows the FNÉ to declare sums received whose amount is very much lower than that of the sums initially collected by telephone operators and money transfer operators. At each of the links of this “ camouflage chain “the ” voluntary blindness » is used and it feeds la corruptionwhich is operating at full capacity and which brings in considerable sums to the various links of the “ camouflage chain ».
We must take every measure that the combination of legal relays and invisible and untraceable relaysau National Education Fund is covered, in the Law of August 17, 2017par the non-existence of restrictive financial statement control measuresof the FNE. Indeed, in chapter 2 (article 10.(o), Section I) of this law, it is stipulated that “ The Board of Directors has the responsibilities « (…) to examine the report of the external auditor, follow up on the opinions issued by the latter and have the audit report published within six months following the end of the financial year “. Such formulation obviously does not include any binding measure and no document recorded on theofficial website ofFonds national education certifies that this allocation was respected from 2017 to 2024.
REMINDER – For a better understanding of la corruptionin Haiti in its sociological, historical and political dimensions, see Jean Abel Pierre, “ Economic sociology of corruption: towards a study of the implementation of public policies to fight corruption in Haiti », doctoral thesis in sociology, Paris-Sorbonne University – Paris IV, 2014. The author closely studies, among other things, the “Common forms of corruption within public administration”, “The networks of corruption in Public Administration” and “The networks of great political-administrative corruption”. See also, on corruption and “the “ cartelization”of the state apparatus”, Sarto Samuel Thomas, ” The Anti-Corruption Unit (ULCC) facing the capture of the state apparatus and corruption in Haiti » (master’s thesis in political science, Université du Québec en Outaouais, 2020), and Pierre Fournier « Haiti, social, historical, economic contexts and the phenomenon of corruption », Bar of Montreal, 2016. See also the article by Frantz Duval, « In Parliament, this year we are spending 31 million gourdes per deputy and 123 million gourdes per senator », Le Nouvelliste, July 25, 2018.
On another note, we noted that the official website ofFonds national education, like that of “decentralized organizations” and ministries of the Haitian state, is developed only in French, one of the two languages of our historical linguistic heritage. None of the documents recorded there appear in the original Creole version, which constitutes a flagrant violation of article 40 of the 1987 Constitution which stipulates that the Haitian State has the obligation to publish all its documents, laws, decree-laws, orders, etc. in the country’s two official languages, Creole and French. In the education sector, it sometimes happens that the Ministry of National Education publishes rare “press releases” in Creole, but on the whole its site is not written in Creole, French remaining the main language. communication of this ministry. It is the same for the rickety Haiti State University website whose only language of communication is French, even though the leaders of the State University of Haiti – wishing to carve out a hegemonic role for themselves – were at work with a view to the premature creation of the Creole Academy in 2014 (see the article “ The Haitian Creole Academy: autopsy of a trivialized failure (2014 – 2022) », by Robert Berrouët-Oriol, Le National, Port-au-Prince, January 18, 2022). Furthermore, on the official website ofFonds national educationwe found no trace of even partial financing of the LIV INIK AN KREYÒL launched with great cacophony last year by the Ministry of National Education: a book of around 300 pages presented as “unique” but which was developed in 7 different versions by 7 different publishers (see the article “ The LIV INIK AN KREYÒL, digital version, or the permanence of cosmetic bluff at the Ministry of National Education of Haiti », by Robert Berrouët-Oriol, Médiapart, February 24, 2024). It has been noted that according to the Law of August 17, 2017 (“Chapter 1, Section II, article 3) the FNÉ has the mission to “participate in the effort of education for all” and to comply with it while ensuring the management of funds intended for the national education system: this mission, on a national scale, does not take into account the Haitian linguistic question and on the official website ofFonds national education we found no trace of any funding for French-Creole or unidirectional Creole teaching materials.
Brief reminder of the “constitutional requirements” aspect in terms of education : the main lessons of the saga of the National Education Fund
Au National Education Fundthe « squandering system » of the enormous financial resources amassed from 2017 to 2024 is incontravention frontale with chapter 2 of the Law of August 17, 2017 published inThe monitor“Special” no. 30 of September 22, 2017. Indeed and as we previously mentioned, theLaw of August 17, 2017 « Concerning the creation of the organization and operation of the National Education Fund (FNÉ) » stipulates, in chapter 2 (article 10.(o), Section I), that “ The Board of Directors is responsible for “(…) examining the report of the external auditor, following up on the opinions issued by the latter and having the audit report published within six months following the end of the financial year “. However, the methodical consultation of official website ofFonds national education as well as the careful examination of official website of Ministry of Educationwere unable to trace (1) the slightest quantified and exhaustive assessment of all the achievements of the National Education Fund from 2017 to 2024;(2) the least financial statement covering the periods 2017-2021 and 2021-2024 carried out by the accounting department ofFNÉ ; (3)the least« report of an external auditor [ayant conduit à] follow up on the opinions issued by the latter and publish the audit report within six months following the end of the financial year “. The eagerness to Jean Ronald Josephthe current director of National Education Fundduring the press conference of April 16, 2024, during which he announced that he had introduced “legal recourse against those who orchestrated [une]“defamation campaign against the FNÉ”[et] that an administrative and legal investigation is already underway”, consists in fact of a make-up operation intended to MAKE INVISIBLE AND NON-TRACABLE THE VARIOUS OPERATIONS OF DIVERSION OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES FROM THE NATIONAL EDUCATION FUND.
Legal coverage of corruption in Haiti
To achieve this, the National Education Fund violates its own constitutive charter, the Law of August 17, 2017and this flagrant violation was administratively and politically reinforced and endorsed by the former ministerin fact from him national education, Nesmy Manigat who, under the terms of chapter 2 (article 7) of the Law of August 17, 2017was the chairman of the board of directors of the FNÉ. According to Law of August 17, 2017the Board of Directors ofFNÉ is composed, in addition to the Minister of Education who chairs it, of Finance as vice-president, and the ministers of Planning and Haitians abroad are also part of it. We are in fact in the presence of a complex conflict of interest and to fully understand how this conflict is structured and covered by the law, we called on the expertise of a Haitian lawyer working in Haiti. Here, on a legal and administrative level, is the diagnosis he sent us by email: “ This coupling unfortunately corresponds to an administrative and political culture and legality, but with many pernicious effects. It is a legacy of a Duvalierian conception of Public Administration (Law of September 6, 1982) maintained by the Decree of May 17, 2005 on the central administration of the State (article 123). It is abnormal for an autonomous body to have a Board of Directors chaired by its supervisory minister. This minister therefore exercises supervisory powers over himself and his colleagues. Such autonomous organisms are therefore not…autonomous! On the other hand, rare autonomous organizations have a more acceptable structure. The BRH for example has a Board of Directors of which the Minister of Finance is only the honorary president, the UCREF no longer has a minister as president of its Board of Directors. The organization of the FNE like that of the BMPAD are examples of the worst: a Board of Directors made up of many ministers! In general, this type of Council never meets ».
NOTE- The position of Minister of Finance was occupied from March 5, 2020 to mid-April 2024 by Michel Patrick Boisvert–vice-president of the Board of Directors of National Education Fund–, became Prime Minister interim and de facto when he was fraudulently appointed to this position on March 4, 2024 by the former Prime Minister de facto and interim Ariel Henry, the henchman of the most powerful clan of the neo-Duvalierist PHTK politico-mafia cartel. Ariel Henry was “resigned” on March 12, 2024 by his International tutors through a game of lying poker staged by CARICOM, an erratic transnational business coterie sailing in the troubled waters of the Caribbean Sea. This liar poker game gave birth on April 25, 2024 to an unconstitutional “ Presidential Transitional Council » within which the neo-Duvalierist PHTK is widely represented and whose Prime Minister interim pair and de factois none other than… Michel Patrick Boisvert (his new mandate lasted only six days). The immense and competent “managerial virtues” of Michel Patrick Boisvert on the Board of Directors of theNational Education Fundwill certainly continue to deploy due to its close links with the neo-Duvalierist PHTK and sheltered from any control of a Parliament put out of service by the neo-Tontons Macoutes of the PHTK. Composed of 9 members, the “Presidential Transitional Council” was heroically self-installed on April 25, 2024 – outside the requirements of the 1987 Constitution –, in the benevolent shadow of the armed gangs in a position of force in the capital and in the total indifference of the population. In a country which has not had any elected officials since 2016, the “Presidential Transitional Council”, on April 30, 2024, designated Fritz Belizaire to the post of “Prime Minister of the Transition”. The designation of Fritz Bélizaire – outside the requirements of the 1987 Constitution – to the post of Prime Minister in facttook place in the context where, over the last eleven years, the politico-mafia cartel of the neo-Duvalierist PHTK has very largely “devitalized” and torpedoed the sovereign institutions of Haiti and consolidatedthe subculture of impunity and corruption.
The violation of the Law of August 17, 2017by those responsible for National Education Fundis highly significant of the instrumentalization of the “ voluntary blindness » (« be wise to speak, mouth not to speak “) practiced on the Board of Directors of the National Education Fund. Such a violation is alsoincontravention frontale with article 32 of the 1987 Constitution (“The State guarantees the right to education “). By implementing on a large scale, National Education Fundas elsewhere in PSUGOthe different stratagems of “ squandering system » which is rooted in its « cloaking device », the senior management of FNÉ therefore directly opposes one of the fundamental citizen rights of Haitian speakers, the right to education: in doing so, this senior management torpedoes the struggles of teachers, school directors and parent associations for the construction of ‘a quality and inclusive Haitian School.
The « squandering system » au National Education Fundwhich is rooted in its “ cloaking device » and in an environment where prevails impunityis all the more damaging for the entire Haitian education system as it has crossed the threshold of its institutional modelingunder the leadership of “ legal bandits » of the politico-mafia cartel of the neo-duvalierist PHTK. NOTE – On the “ legal bandits “, see the highly analytical article by Laënnec Hurbon, sociologist, research director at CNRS (Paris) and professor at the Faculty of Human Sciences of the State University of Haiti, ” Colonial practices and legal banditry in Haiti » (Médiapart, June 28, 2020); see also the article “ The philosophy of the “legal bandit” in Haiti: from verbalization to materialization », Trip foumi website, April 10, 2022. On the problem of impunity, see the rigorous “ Memoir on the fight against impunity in Haiti » developed by the Haitian Collective Against Impunity and Lawyers Without Borders Canada and presented on March 2, 2018 to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. See also the various reports and press releases from Amnesty International, among others “ Haiti: a new step towards the end of impunity » (June 6, 2001) and « Haiti will not forget the violations committed in the past » (April 26, 2013). See also the extensive and well-documented study “ State-sanctioned massacres: reign of impunity in Haiti » produced by the Harvard Law School International Human Rights Clinic and the Haitian Observatory of Crimes Against Humanity (April 2021).
Finally the scandalous “ salary bamboche »issue du« squandering system » au National Education Fundis mentioned in the article “ At the National Education Fund, money is wasted by “millions of gourdes” » published on 1is April 2024 by the hebdo24.com website. Here is an excerpt: “ Since last weekend, the National Education Fund has been the subject of serious denunciations. Indeed, the FNE would constitute a real cash cow for certain people, including its Director General. According to documents consulted by Hebdo24,the monthly salary of Jean Ronald Joseph amounts to 650,000 gourds[[US$4,875 monthly]. Added over 12 months, his salary is 7 million 800 thousand gourdes annually. In addition, salary expenses within Mr. Joseph’s office total 24 million gourdes per year for seven peoplewhile his cabinet, composed of seventeen members, represents an annual expenditure of 49 million gourdes.These documents include the names of firms, schools, journalists and other contractors who receive astronomical sums for their services. This is the case of the former deputy DéusDéroneth who receives an amount of 350,000 gourdsas a contract worker ».
