Haiti Final Report, OAS Mechanism for Follow-Up on the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC), Second and Fifth Review Cycles

This is the OAS Mechanism for Follow-Up on the Implementation of the Inter-American Convention against Corruption (MESICIC)'s final report on Haiti (document SG/MESICIC/doc.538/18.rev4), adopted at the plenary session of 14 March 2019 during the Committee of Experts' 32nd meeting. Because Haiti had no relationship with MESICIC during the Convention's Second Cycle, this report analyzes implementation for both the Second Cycle (Article III paragraphs 5 and 8: civil-service recruitment and state procurement systems, and protection of officials and private individuals who report corruption in good faith, plus criminalization of corruption acts under Article VI) and the Fifth Cycle (Article III paragraphs 3 and 12: guidance to public officials on their responsibilities and ethics rules, and measures linking fair remuneration to probity).

The analysis draws on Haiti's response to the Committee's questionnaire and an in-country visit conducted 9-11 October 2018 by representatives of Argentina and Panama, which included consultations with civil society. Recommendations on civil-service recruitment include strengthening the Office de Management des Ressources Humaines (OMRH) so it has the independence, powers and capacity to regulate recruitment, adopting rules for the recruitment of legislative and judicial branch staff, and publishing recruitment statistics.

On state procurement, recommendations include consolidating procurement rules into a single text, creating a sanctions regime for non-compliant contracting authorities, establishing a public registry of contractors, and limiting direct-award procedures so open tender remains the norm. On whistleblower protection, recommendations call for a comprehensive legal framework protecting both officials and private individuals, protection extending to families and to working conditions, and a simplified procedure for protection requests.

On criminalization, recommendations include strengthening the ULCC's resources so it can follow up on corruption investigations referred to the courts, and publishing statistics on corruption case outcomes. For the Fifth Cycle, Haiti selected the staff of the Direction Générale du Budget (DGB) and the Administration Générale des Douanes (AGD) for analysis of ethics and responsibility guidance, with recommendations to institute formal training programs for both bodies' staff. Figures and institutional references are as published by the OAS; the corpus text is the native PDF text (not OCR).