(1971-06) Law raising the payroll levy funding the Caisse d'Assistance Sociale, plus a supplementary-credit law for the Ministry of Finance's Direction de l'Inspection and Direction Générale
Summary — A Le Moniteur gazette from the Duvalier era (1971) reproducing two laws signed by President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier: the first raises the payroll contribution funding the Caisse d'Assistance Sociale (created in 1938) from prior rates to 1% monthly on state and autonomous-agency salaries, redirected through the Banque Nationale de la République d'Haïti; the second opens a modest supplementary budget credit (15,000 gourdes) to two Finance Ministry directorates by de-allocating funds from a bank transfer-fee budget line.
Key Findings
- Raises the Caisse d'Assistance Sociale payroll levy to 1% monthly on state, autonomous-agency and Treasury-funded salaries.
- Funds flow through and are controlled via the Banque Nationale de la République d'Haïti, with a mandatory monthly revenue/expenditure report to the Finance Secretary of State.
- Explicitly frames the 1971 increase as continuing the social-assistance policy of the previous Duvalier administration.
- A second, unrelated law shows routine in-year reallocation of 15,000 gourdes between Finance Ministry budget lines.
- Both laws were promulgated on the same day (1 June 1971) by President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier, illustrating the centralized fiscal decision-making of the era.
Full Description
This 1971 Journal Officiel issue reproduces two distinct laws voted by the Chambre Législative and promulgated by President-for-Life Jean-Claude Duvalier at the Palais National on 1 June 1971. The first amends Article 2 of the 9 December 1938 Décret-Loi (as previously modified in 1939 and 1944) that created the Caisse d'Assistance Sociale, raising the monthly levy on salaries paid by ministries, autonomous public bodies, state enterprises, and Haitian Treasury-funded employees to 1%, on top of existing levies on foncière tax receipts and patente duties; it directs the Département des Finances to establish oversight procedures for amounts collected and deposited at the Banque Nationale de la République d'Haïti, with a monthly revenue-and-expenditure report to the Secretary of State for Finance. The preamble explicitly frames the increase as continuing the social-assistance program begun under Dr. François Duvalier. The second, unrelated law opens a supplementary credit of 10,000 gourdes to the Direction de l'Inspection and 5,000 gourdes to the Direction Générale (both 'Autres Dépenses de Fonctionnement' lines) of the same budget year, funded by de-allocating 15,000 gourdes from the 'Frais de Prime et de Transfert B.N.R.H.' budget line — an example of routine in-year budget reallocation under the era's centralized fiscal procedure.