Haiti - Politic : 33% of the offices of the parliamentarians are not found !
As part of its efforts to promote parliamentary transparency, the Citizen Observatory for the Institutionalization of Democracy (OCID) conducted a field survey of the offices of parliamentarians in constituencies and departments.
First observation : overall, 33% of these offices have not been found and 21% of those that have been located are not operational.
OCID investigators deployed from March 15 to 25, 2019, in the ten (10) departments of the country and at 83 constituencies (out of a total of 116 currently represented in Parliament), searched for 83 Deputies and 29 Senators offices. Using a questionnaire developed for this purpose, they interviewed mayors, city delegates, known members of parliamentarians' campaign teams, local representatives of political parties from parliamentarians and other active citizens of parliamentarians of areas targeted.
Analysis of the data collected for the 83 offices of Deputies (ie 71% of the 116 seats filled in the Lower House) and the 29 Senators offices (ie 100% of the 29 seats filled in the Senate) reveals that :
57 offices of Deputies were identified among the 83 targeted (around 69%);
45 offices are operational (79% of 57 offices identified);
Of the 29 Senators offices targeted, 19 were identified (approximately 65%), of which 15 are functional (79% of the 19 offices identified);
84% of Deputies operational offices operate during the 5 business days of the week, while for the Senators 15 operational offices operate 5 days out of 5
Of the 45 operational offices of Deputies, 31 have a register of visitors against 12 out of 15 for Senators offices.
On the basis of these observations, the OCID recommends :
The preparation by Parliament of a Guide to the Operation of the Offices of Parliamentarians and the training of the staff of these offices on their role;
Educating and informing constituency and departmental citizens about Deputies offices (their contact information, role, operating schedule, activities for the public);
The transformation of the offices of parliamentarians into real information and consultation relays with the population, particularly with regard to the work of Parliament (agreements or bills and bills voted or debated);
The establishment of a transparent control mechanism of the resources available to parliamentarians for the functioning of their office (for example, the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commissions of the two Chambers should be able to carry out an annual inventory of equipment and equipment mobilized for these offices, check rental and employee contracts, etc...);
The publication of a dashboard of the offices of parliamentarians informing the population on their address, phone number, operating hours and services offered or main activities. This fact sheet could be disseminated, among other things, on the Internet and in the offices of the organs of territorial collectivities (CASEC, town halls) and in the decentralized offices of the central power within each department and each commune.
