ARTICLE - ONA EMBEZZLEMENT - JACMEL

SCANDAL IN JACMEL, EMBEZZLEMENT AT THE ONA
(Haiti Libre) -

For more than fifteen days, the case of embezzlement in the administration of the Regional Director Herno Jeudi and his assistant Hector Noël at the Office National Old Age Insurance (ONA), of Jacmel has made the headlines.

The interrogation of employees by the Director General of ONA, Jean Alix Boyer continued until late September. According to a reliable source at Haitilibre, the corruption scandal at the ONA of Jacmel seems more complex than was imagined.

Leading figures are involved in this case. Acts of fraud have been perpetrated by a small network, operating at the Banque Nationale de Credit (BNC), which facilitated the transaction of cheques, the use of the logo of the bank and others...

Nine employees of the ONA of Jacmel, are being placed on "standy". The Deputy Director Hector Noël, and more than a dozen arrest warrants were issued against people who have been involved in this case. Among the employees laid off, Sherline Sainbert, the girlfriend of the Regional Director Herno Jeudi was not spared. Most of the warrants issued, are against people who are not part of the institution. A measure that seems rather fantasy, and some people mentioned in this matter and wanted by the justice of Jacmel continue to move freely about in the streets of the city...

In an interview with Haitilibre, on Friday 30 September, Me Luc François, the defense lawyer of Joshua Sainbert who was arrested in this case, denounced the way that his client was arrested. He said that his client, Joshua Sainbert had received a cheque from the Director Herno Jeudi, his brother in law, while Herno Jeudi and Hector, the two co-signatories of this check were not arrested, and Hector Noël was present when his client was arrested. Mr. Luc François deplores this situation, stating that any person could be a victim in this way. He wants a thorough investigation and that all culprits be brought to justice.

Always according to the source of Haitilibre, the Deputy Director of ONA, Hector Noël would have taken the "maquis" and the Regional Director of the ONA, Herno Jeudi have fled a week before the arrival of the Commission of Inquiry, after having received the formal order, ... asking him to vacate the premises at dawn...

The sociologist Omar Gara, head of the Movement for National Reconstruction (MRN), reacting to the embezzlement scandal said that he was not surprised by this show. The leader of the MNR said that as long as incompetence prevails ... on the competence and the capacity, ... this situation will exist in public institutions. Omar Gara said that these corruption cases settling within the public administration, are usually royalties towards parliamentarians or corrupt politicians who have appointed those directors and employees. The leader of the Movement for National Reconstruction (MRN) suggests that a competition is organized, for people wanting to access a position in the institutions of the State.

Our source also informs us that because of the complexity of the case, a tripartite committee will be formed, composed of representatives of the executive, union members and from the civil society to continue to investigate this embezzlement. Know that a sum estimated at between 7 and 13 millions gourds has been diverted from the ONA of Jacmel.