Friday, 10 August 2012 10:13
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (defend.ht) – The Secretary General of the Prime Ministry denied and strongly condemned reports coming from some news agencies that PM Laurent Lamothe would be preparing to take action against the former Minister of the Interior, Thierry Mayard Paul, for embezzling 400 million HTG ($10 million [US]) of public funds; also insinuating that First Lady Sophia Martelly would be involved.
The press note from Secretary General Michel Pierre Brunache reads:
Thursday, August 9, 2012: The General Secretariat of the Prime Minister strongly condemns the wild allegations conveyed by the Journal Haiti Observateur under which the Prime Minister, His Excellency Mr. Laurent Salvador Lamothe, is preparing to sue the former Minister of Interior and Territorial Communities, Thierry Mayard Paul, for embezzlement of public funds.
The Head of Government believes that these serious accusations splashing also the First Lady of the Republic, is part of a macabre desire to discredit the entire Executive and to cast doubt in favorable opinion for ulterior interests.
Prime Minister Laurent Salvador Lamothe, while calling on everyone to be professional and calm, reserves the right to make such provision as of right.
– END –
Indeed, it is being circulated in several circles on the web, a text titled “Breaking News **** Haiti Observateur: 400 million gourdes stolen by Thierry Mayard Paul and Sophia Martelly”
The title of the article “Lamothe is Reconsidering the Continuation of Mayard-Paul, War of Nerves on the Even of the School Year”, published on Haiti Observateur’s website, and current issue of their printed circular, dated August 8-15, 2012 says it has learned from sources “close to the Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe… that Mayard-Paul will be prosecuted for ’embezzlement’.”
Full text:
One learns from sources close to the Prime Minister, Laurent Lamothe who seriously drives the wheel for Mayard Paul to be prosecuted for “embezzlement”. It is suggested that nearly 400 million gourdes are missing. Informants suggested that following the investigation conducted by technicians attached to the prime minister, 119 million gourdes, on the one hand, and other 281 million gourdes, on the other hand, are not found in the Interior Ministry. This is a total of approximately $ 48 million USD.
The correct exchange of 400 million HTG into U.S. dollars is just under $10 million USD. The text continues:
There is a long list of recipients of the “generosity” of Minister Mayard Paul. It is being repeated in the corridors of the prime ministry that the former interior minister had a long list of beneficiaries of his generosity that belong to all social strata.
He has provided thousands of jobs in municipalities and CASECS, which are not regularly enrolled in the department. It is estimated that to keep these people requires disbursements valued at tens of millions of gourdes. According to some close to Laurent Lamothe, until about two weeks ago, Thierry Mayard Paul wanted to bail out of the ministry he directed to make distributions of cash to lower the discontent of the population against the government. According confidences made by officers assigned to the office of prime minister, the interior minister having laid off would have distributed the equivalent of over U.S. $5 million across the Republic “without supporting documentation.”
A Defense on the Suspected Allegations of the Former Minister?
Cyrus Sibert of the blog, Reseau Citadelle defended the report against former Minister Mayard-Paul. In his writing, Sibert says “if 400 million gourdes were spend for the benefit of members of grassroots bases, there is no theft. The Minister Thierry Mayard-Paul was in the usual operation of the Ministry of the Interior that has always spent its resources on these entities.”