The move came five days after tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Port-au-Prince and other cities to protest corruption.Investigations by the Haitian Senate in 2016 and 2017 concluded that nearly $2 billion from a Venezuelan aid program called Petrocaribe were misused.
Through Petrocaribe, Venezuela for years supplied Haiti and other Caribbean and Central American countries with oil at cut-rate prices and on easy credit terms.
A dozen former cabinet ministers were implicated, including the two officials removed from office on Monday.
The Senate’s findings, however, led to no legal or government actions, prompting the rise of a civil protest movement called #PetrocaribeChallenge demanding that the government explain what happened to the money.
“We are going to create an independent commission to investigate the truth of Petrocaribe,” Ceant told journalists.
He said a foreign firm will be chosen by the commission to trace the Petrocaribe funds and find out what happened to the money and how to recover it.
Source: AFP
Categories: Crime/Justice, English, FEATURED, Haiti, Top Stories
