Economy

$27M Lost if Haiti Gov't Does Not Meet Conditions of Int'l Banks

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) - The meetings of the Government follow a similar look. There is always information tilted in a clutter of ads without large consequences.

$27 million put at the disposal of the country by two international financial institutions may be lost if Haiti does not fulfill the conditions, by next week, required by the World Bank and the Interamerican Development Bank.

In fact, $15 million from the IDB and $12 million from the World Bank awaits for the government to fulfill these fairly simple conditions that will allow the availability after their completion are announced.

Among the conditions: the holding of a Board of Directors of the State Electricity of Haiti (EDH), the adoption of an energy policy by the government, the establishment of a water management committee for the hydroelectric dam, Peligre; publication on the website of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of a letter stating the government's policy on the energy sector and the signing of a Memorandum of Agreement establishing the funding arrangements of EDH by the Haitian government.

For ordinary mortals, these conditions do not appear to be rocket science, but for the Haitian government, it seems difficult to take these simple measures.

$27 million at stake and the new Minister of Energy Security, who almost did not have time to speak at the weekly cabinet meeting held Thursday in Cap Haitien, had just time to say enough to provoke criticism from the Prime Minister Laurent Lamothe and the Minister of Finance.

It must be said that the Minister of Energy Security was one of the few holders of the ministry to talk politics and define implementation. The ministers who gave their lists of accomplishments were more successful.