Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Haitian corruption

Haiti's top reconstruction planning official owns part of the country's largest concrete company, which stands to reap major gains from the coming wave of international rebuilding aid.

Patrick Delatour, Haiti's tourism minister, leads a commission that has been crafting plans to rebuild Port-au-Prince and other earthquake-devastated areas. He acknowledged he is 5% owner of GDG Concrete and Construction, which he started in 2000 with his cousin. The company, which calls itself Haiti's only supplier of ready-mixed concrete, helped construct the U.S. Embassy and several other major buildings in Port-au-Prince, it says on its website.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-02-23-delatour_N.htm

Of the billions of dollars we sent and will send Haiti in emergency and reconstruction aid, at least ten to twenty percent will be skimmed off by corrupt officials.

We are not helping the Haitian people by ignoring this fact.

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