Workers hired by Magalie Habitant complain to AyiboPost of non-payment sometimes for several weeks
The sulphurous Magalie Habitant has been roaming the streets of the lower part of the city since the beginning of July as part of a public cleaning campaign criticized by the mayor of Port-au-Prince.
Workers hired by the former director of the National Solid Waste Management Service (SNGRS) complain to AyiboPost of non-payment sometimes for several weeks.
Despite the influence of the gangs, the former director of the SNGRS – convicted in 2021 for embezzlement and mismanagement – travels to areas controlled by the bandits without apparent harm.
Magalie Habitant surrounded by her staff between rue Nicolas and avenue Magloire Ambroise. July 23, 2024
Contacted by AyiboPost on July 23, Habitant maintains the mystery surrounding the financial arms of this initiative.
It claims support from the “private sector” and says it has six trucks to collect rubbish.
Despite his sulphurous reputation and his publicized incursions into gang-controlled areas, Habitant obtains the collaboration of established authorities for his clean-up campaign.
The assessor mayor of Pétion-Ville, Staco Amazan, revealed to AyiboPost that a municipal backhoe loader had been loaned to Habitant for the first day of the campaign.
The presidential council announced on May 20, 2024 a program ofsanitation aimed at cleaning the streets of the metropolitan area with a budget of one billion gourdes.
The municipality of Pétion-Ville is waiting for a response from the Prime Minister’s office after having submitted a project as part of this initiative, Mayor Amazan told AyiboPost.
Of the five trucks owned by the Pétion-Ville city hall, only three are operational, complains the manager.
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In Port-au-Prince, the city hall is showing its skepticism about the project of the councilors-presidents. The State provides “no support to the city hall of Port-au-Prince” and this project “has no future”, maintains the magistrate Lucsonne Janvier.
Janvier denounces the support received by Magalie Habitant, instead of the town hall.
“Why do the private sector and the State, which support this sanitation project by Magalie Habitant, never support the Port-au-Prince city hall?” asks Janvier.
The National Equipment Center (CNE) is continuing its activities and is not collaborating with Magalie Habitant, its director, Kineton Louis, assures AyiboPost.
“We will continue to work in the accessible areas while waiting for the State to make the other areas accessible,” he says.
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Workers for the controversial campaign come largely from the many temporary shelters and camps scattered across Port-au-Prince.
On Tuesday, July 23, two dump trucks with private license plates and a backhoe loader were noticed on Magloire Ambroise Avenue.
These amenities are followed by a white rental car.
Magalie Habitant’s car and her workers at Magloire Ambroise Avenue. July 23, 2024
“It’s Magalie Habitant’s car,” says a local resident on the scene.
The two trucks collect waste to drop it off at the bottom of the city, he said.
One of the trucks collecting trash in the lower city of Port-au-Prince.
Charles has been working on this clean-up campaign for ten days now. Although the work is scheduled to last fifteen days, he still does not know what his salary will be.
A father of three, he has been living in a shelter camp in the Haitian capital since the bandits of Grand Ravine attacked the Carrefour-Feuilles neighborhood. He relies on this work to pay for his children’s schooling.
Shovel in hand, the septuagenarian crosses Magloire Ambroise Avenue to get to Nicolas Street, where there is a pile of rubbish that he has to pick up.
It’s noon, but he looks exhausted from what’s going to be a very long day. He says he’s been working since this morning without eating. He also doesn’t know when he’ll be paid.
Another worker met on the way, Alexis, shares the same difficulties in getting his salary.
He explains that he has already worked for twenty-two days without receiving any payment.
Workers from Magalie Habitant’s clean-up campaign collect trash at Magloire Ambroise Street. Photo taken on July 23, 2024
In July 2021, the Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes ordered Habitant and executives of the Metropolitan Solid Waste Collection Service (SMCRS) to return more than 38 million gourdes to the public treasury in a case of embezzlement and mismanagement.
On February 4, 2022, Magalie Habitant was invited to appear before the Port-au-Prince Public Prosecutor’s Office pursuant to the debit order issued by the Superior Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes against her management.
But Habitant had snubbed this invitation.
Since then, there has been no follow-up on the case.
It is unclear whether the prosecution of the political operative will continue and whether she will return the misspent amounts to the Haitian state.
Par Fenel Pelissier
Cover image: Magalie Resident giving directions on the clean-up work in the lower part of the city of Port-au-Prince | © Jean Feguens Regala/AyiboPost
The photos in the article are from Fenel Pelissier
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