Haiti and the international aid scam (Weisbrot)

[EFerrari]

Corruption takes many forms, and if the United States seems like it has less of it than many developing countries, this is partly because we have legalised so much of it. Election campaign contributions are only the most costly and debilitating form: a legalised bribery that, for example, gives the pharmaceutical and insurance companies a veto over healthcare policy and generally hollows out our limited form of democracy.

This legalisation of corruption reached a new milestone last December when one Lewis Lucke, a long-time US Agency for International Development (USAID) official turned influence-peddler, sued a consortium of firms operating in Haiti for $492,000, for breach of contract. As Lucke would have it (sorry!), he was promised $30,000 a month, plus incentives, to use his influence to secure contracts for these nice fellas. He got them $20m worth of contracts, but they cut him off after two months. The defendants in the case are Ashbritt, a US contractor with a questionable track record, and the GB Group, one of the largest Haitian conglomerates. Together, they formed the Haiti Recovery Group, which they incorporated in the Cayman Islands, to bid on reconstruction contracts.

Lucke was well-positioned for the job, having formerly been in charge of the multibillion dollar reconstruction effort in Haiti for the US government. (He was also previously the USAID Iraq mission director; we know how that reconstruction turned out.) His lawsuit states that when he worked for USAID, "He met with Haitian officials, former United States Presidents Bill Clinton and George W Bush, the state department, World Bank, and other participants …" He was then hired by Ashbritt to, among other things, make "strategic introductions to key stakeholders, organisers and brokers of Haitian recovery efforts …" Bill Clinton and George W Bush established the Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund to help Haiti "build back better", and Clinton is co-chair of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission (IHRC), which has met about six times since the earthquake, and has been widely criticised for its lack of Haitian representation in decision-making.

And then there's the World Bank, which has spent many years complaining about corruption in developing countries, often using it as a convenient excuse for its decades of failed policies. Lucke scored big with the bank, landing a $10m contract for his clients. (The ingrates!) The other $10m contract was with the Haitian government.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/22/haiti-aid?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

[Judi Lynn]

1. Truly sad. Who's gonna stop them, anyway?

.....the World Bank, which has spent many years complaining about corruption in developing countries....

Swear words.