Presidential
Haiti: President Martelly 'Can't Give Information' about Diaspora Tax Money
- Wednesday, January 11, 2012 11:29 AM
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) – President Michel Martelly denied on Tuesday that even a penny of the taxes being levied on the Haitian Diaspora are out of place. Martelly says the funds are so secure that he can't give any information about it.
Responding to calls from Digicel CEO, Denis O'Brien, who demanded an audit of the National Fund for Education (FNE) in a New York Times article, Michel Martelly said:
”This is the same team that made the rumors that are giving the news because the Director General disclaimed it this morning. 1, he disclaimed it.”
”Secondly, for everyone who would like to know what is happening with the money - before I talk about the money - the people that are with me here are not people who steal people's money.”
"Therefore I will answer these questions soon, because I am not on this beat - issues of stealing money, stealing the money of the national fund, understand..."
"Since when I was Sweet Micky, I used to give to the people, understand what I'm saying here?"
"So these types of questions, I think that you have the right to ask them today because there is a foreign newspaper that gave those illusions, but we are used to doing our things in trust."
"To show you the trust, we are so at ease with this fund, that I could tell you that there is not one penny in this fund that has been spent. There is not one penny..."
"... there is no one in Haiti who has the right to go into the fund and touch a penny in it."
"In regards to the money that we collect from the transfers and the five cents we collect on the telephone calls, all this money is here, today..."
"...and this fund is so secure that I can't give information about it." - Michel Martelly, President
It was Senator Jocelerme Privert (Nippes/Inite) who first discovered that $26 million [US] had not been accounted for in the National Fund for Education.
The CEO of Digicel Haiti did not necessarily disclaim or confirm that any of the funds had been misappropriated.
The National Fund for Education was launched in May, outside of the legal framework required by Haitian law. The fund collected five cents per minute on international phone calls and $1.50 [US] on money transfers.
To date, none of the funds have been used towards educating children in Haiti.
Related 01.07.2012: Haiti: Voilà CEO Robin Padberg Resigns
Related 01.06.2012: Haiti: Digicel CEO Wants to Know Where the Education Money
Related 01.05.2011: Haitian Teachers want Corrections to President's Free Education Program
Related 12.26.2011: Haitian Schools to Receive Loans from Credit Bank for Free Education
Related 12.14.2011: Haiti: Measures by Senate Aims to Resolve U.S. Currency Shortage
Related 12.13.2011: Haiti: Millions Collected for Education 'Nonexistent' says Senator
Related 12.02.2011: Haiti Private Schools Suffering with Parents Refusing to Pay
Related 11.26.2011: "National Fund for Education is not operational" says Haiti Education Minister
Related 11.25.2011: Rising Suspicions of Corruption in the Haitian Presidency
Related 10.18.2011: $26 Million [US] Missing from Haiti's National Fund for Education
Related 06.17.2011: Education Tax in Effect as $2 Calling Cards Drop from 22 Minutes to 6 Minutes
Related 05.27.2011: Martelly Launches National Fund for Education
