To mark the International Day against corruption, this Friday, December 9, Amos Durosier, the Director General of the Unit to Combat Corruption (ULCC) declared that Haiti needed results concrete and immediate in the fight against this scourge.

" [...] it is for any State which are party of this conventions, to take their responsibilities and the first step, is to raise awareness the public to the scourge of corruption. We need concrete and immediate results in this fight and the effectiveness depends on a political commitment at the highest level of the State, which consists, for the highest political and moral authority, to launch strong message in favor of transparency in accountability, integrity, honesty, the respect for established norms, concern of the public good, in short, all this is called good governance in order to revive public confidence in the institutions of its country.

It is imperious to put an end to the impunity enjoyed for too long, by the corrupted and corrupters [...] act against corruption today, returns for our legislators to vote the law against the repression and the prevention of the corruption. This is an emergency for us in Haiti, since we have ratified these conventions, to harmonize our laws so that the legal framework is modernized and allows really to prevent corruption.

Act against corruption, also involves all private business sector, the respect of standards of public contract, the promotion of the transparency through regular publication of information on the financial statements, and good commercial practices of business, especially those who have contractual relationships with the State..."

Recalling that the fight against corruption can not be solely the work of the ULCC, Amos Durosier stressed that this struggle was transversal "...from a set of state institutions, of the civil society, international donors, together, we must loudly and clearly act against corruption immediately and to work sincerely and effectively in this direction, because it hurts us every year, when we are told that Haiti is among the countries perceived as most corrupt in the world...(1)"

For his part, Ban Ki-moon the Secretary General of the United Nations declared "On this International Anti-Corruption Day, let us pledge to do our part by cracking down on corruption, shaming those who practice it and engendering a culture that values ethical behaviour."

(1) [NdHL] In its latest ranking 2011, Transparency International released its Index of Corruption Perception [0 highly corrupt - 10 highly clean]. New Zealand leads with the highest score and North Korea (included in the index for the first time) arrives at last in the standings, while Haiti is ranked 175th out of 183 countries with a score of 1.8. However, Transparency International indicates that the index of corruption perception, extracted from 17 different surveys and assessments [5 only in the case of Haiti in 2011] can not be compared from one year to another. Two thirds of the countries assessed in this study, receive a score lower than 5.

HL/ HaitiLibre