In an expropriation decree issued on September 3 2010 – the Bellerive – Préval’s government declared of public utility an area bounded from the north by “ La rue des Césars “ to the port, from the south by “ La rue Saint-Honoré “, from the east by “La rue Capois “ and from the west by the sea and the bay. All properties located within this area are prone to be used by the state to build the new downtown Port-au-Prince. This decree leaves most owners in a hurry to provide proper ownership document to receive some form of compensation. However, the main question remains unanswered by public official: is it the right choice?
The devastating earthquake, which occurred on the late afternoon of January 12 2010, killed more than 250,000 people. Hence it has revealed all form of weaknesses from public and private sector. It also showed the world how fragile Haiti really was and reflected the big social disparities. However, the earthquake also created an opportunity to unite and move the country forward because on that woeful day, for only 30 seconds, all Haitians from all creeds shared the same fear. But, why haven’t elected official seize the opportunity to unify all citizens behind the reconstruction process?
The executive order on September 3 2010 is a sign of the unwillingness of public official to create the proper public and private partnership that could lead to a more efficient reconstruction process. Even when, to make things worse, in March a poll funded by the international charity Oxfam showed that only 6.6 percent of Haitians believed their government alone should be left to rebuild the country.
Instead of creating the “Facilitation Committee for the reconstruction of downtown Port-au-Prince” why haven’t the Bellerive-Preval’s Government formed a quasi-governmental corporation, similar to Semapa in France (Société d’économie mixte d’aménagement de Paris), responsible for designing and planning reconstruction of the downtown area?
The quasi-government corporation law (Loi sur les sociétés anonymes mixtes) of September 16 1963 on quasi government corporation, we believe, provides public officials enough legal frameworks to create one of the largest public-private partnerships of all time in Haiti, where owners could use their land as contribution in kind to a newly formed reconstruction corporation.
A contribution in kind is a capital increase that is not in cash: e.g. incorporation of liabilities in equity, contribution of assets, of a business, receivables or goodwill and which is remunerated by issuance of new shares. Owners could now have a choice to stay as a partner of the project or sell their shares to the state or other private entity.
When questioned regarding the government decision, many owners feel very frustrated and are not assured the reconstruction of downtown areas will be properly undertake. “It’s a legal way to steal what we have left from that earthquake” they said.
Since the government mandate is coming to an end, it remains to be seen if the next government will follow on their footsteps. One thing we can be sure, this expropriation saga has just started and it’s not about to end.
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C.C.A & R.D
