Haiti PM doesn’t doubt honesty of Dominican firms, for now

Santo Domingo.- Haiti Prime minister Garry Conille yesterday said for now he doesn’t have any reasons to say that all the Dominican companies which obtained contracts under tender offers have broken his country’s laws, in reference to the Haitian Government hiring of several foreign companies in the emergency period in the heels of the 2010 quake, and which are now the target of a probe.

“They’ve (Dominican companies) worked and still continue working in a satisfactory manner” in Haiti, and noted that it’s now up to government supervisory agencies to review tenders in his country, to determine possible infractions.

In a letter to newspaper Listin Editor in chief Miguel Franjul, the Haitian official criticized “certain hostile politicians” who questioned his decision “entirely integral” to review contracts signed after the tremor, a measure subject to “universally admitted rules of transparency and good government.”

He said the investigation was launched in good faith of all those involved. “As the preliminary audit’s conclusions will confirm – still confidential- that the foreign companies haven’t been specifically targeted. On the contrary, they firmly advised to work jointly with the Haitian companies.”

It’s the first time Haiti’s Prime Minister refers publicly to the scandal unleashed two weeks ago when Felix Bautista, one of president Leonel Fernandez’s closest collaborators, admitted to having obtained two major contracts for the construction of infrastructure in and around Port-au-Prince in the post quake period, despite being a cabinet official then, and the Senator of San Juan Province now.

Conille ordered the revision of contracts signed by his predecessor, Jean Max Bellerive, mostly those signed in the months following the quake.

Bellerive, quoted by Listin, said the negotiations and concessions were transparent and based on the powers received from Haiti’s Parliament to sign them without previous call for tenders due to the country’s situation.