After his appearance, yesterday Friday, before the Senate Committee "Justice and corruption" where he had to respond, among others, of the management of funds PetroCaribe, the Prime Minister resigned, Jean Max Bellerive has declared :

"...they spoke of the 163 million which are disbursed... I explained to them that it is not the case. I explained to them how much money there was in each PetroCaribe, I did three, not just one and it's not just 163 million, this is nearly 393 million which are on three PetroCaribe that have been voted [...] but it's not because you have voted something, that you have the money to put in your pocket. There are projects that require studies, tenders etc... there is money that is there, money that is engaged, there is money that is ready to be engaged, and money already spent. These are all these reports we gave [to the Commission], which road was made, which bridge was built, what power plant was built...

The money of PetroCaribe it's like the money from the USAID or from the European Union. This is money that Venezuela has given us, I see that they [the members of the Commission] make a big issue about it, because it's PetroCaribe... I do not know if they have problems with the President Chávez... We have the same obligations of management that the the other funds of the cooperation because it falls within the National Budget (1). I have the same reports to give to the Court of Accounts and to the Parliament. The Commission spoke of a contract of eight pages, I showed them the size of the contract that was signed, I gave them all the numbers, the real numbers, the statements of the PetroCaribe that the office of monetization manage, so we try to show that I am transparent in everything I do. The Commission has all the documents and we told them that if they had any questions, we are ready to return."

The question that arises, following these statements it suddenly seems "so simple" to provide answers and all the details [according to the remarks of Jean Max Bellerive] on the use of these funds, while for years, parliamentarians, in the absence of transparency have not ceased to demand explanations without ever getting clear answers or documents... leaving room for all the speculation and accusations...

(1) The remarks of Jean Max Bellerive, may suggest that the fund PetroCaribe, has always been in the national budget, which is not accurate. It is good to remember that the PetroCaribe funds, joined the National Budget, for the first time, in the 2010-2011 budget. https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-1915-haiti-economy-the-budget-of-haiti-2010-2011-passes-the-100-billion-gourds.html

See also :

https://www.haitilibre.com/article-1039-haiti-rumeurs-de-palais-le-gouvernement-voudrait-utiliser-100-millions-du-fonds-petro-caribe.html (in french)

https://www.haitilibre.com/article-1095-haiti-politique-yves-christalin-refuse-d-avaliser-l-utilisation-du-fonds-petrocarib.html (in french)

HL/ HaitiLibre