(Port-au-Prince, Haiti) The Anti-Corruption Unit (ULCC), an official Haitian body, recommended Wednesday in a report the prosecution of three members of the transition council for abuse of office, payment of bribes -wine and passive corruption.
This ULCC report, awaited for several weeks, incriminates Louis Gérald Gilles, Smith Augustin and Emmanuel Vertilaire, members of the Presidential Transitional Council, set up after the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry in the face of the outbreak of gang violence in the country.
When publishing the results of the investigation, the general director of the ULCC Hans Ludwig Joseph indicated that the file had been transmitted to the country’s justice system.
The Presidential Transitional Council as well as the advisors involved have not yet reacted.
“The Presidential Council is discredited and weakened, citizens no longer have confidence. I don’t see how we’re going to be able to put the pieces back together. The future of the council is uncertain,” Edouard Paultre, of the organization Ensemble contre la corruption (ECC), responded to AFP.
On the political side, several officials are asking for their resignation.
“Even temporarily, our representative must step aside. This is necessary to protect the integrity of the transition. We have already taken steps to replace him,” said Pascal Adrien, one of the members of Louis Gérald Gilles’ movement.
For his part, Claude Joseph, a member of Smith Augustin’s party, claimed to have “already asked” his representative to resign.
If these two movements wish to replace their representatives, there is nevertheless no legal formula to do so, due to the unprecedented nature of the transitional council, set up outside the constitutional framework and without elections.
Haiti, already the poorest country in the region, has long suffered from violence by criminal gangs, but in recent months it has intensified and further aggravated an almost permanent humanitarian crisis.
These gangs are accused of numerous murders, rapes, looting and kidnappings for ransom.
The security situation remains critical in Haiti, despite the arrival of the Multinational Security Support Mission (MMAS) led by Kenya.
Since the departure of Ariel Henry, the Presidential Transitional Council has been tasked with putting the country back on its feet.
An immense task, in a country ravaged by violence and corruption, and which has not had a president since the assassination of Jovenel Moïse in 2021.