A common refrain says that Haiti is a land
of persistent and debilitating governmental corruption that
prevents any meaningful human development from taking place.
This is repeated ad nauseum by vested interests who gain
from disinformation about the true cause of Haiti's
underdevelopment. Even sincere people fall prey to what is the
surface appearance of a deeper issue.
It is true that corruption in
government and economic life is a serious problem for Haiti. But
stating this alone doesn't explain much or solve anything. If
Haiti has not developed stable and effective government, it is
primarily because its democracy is persistently subverted from
abroad.
What's more, "corruption" in
Haiti is small scale compared to corruption in the countries
that lecture Haiti on the subject. One such country, Canada, it
is presently awash in cases of corruption and government waste
and deception. One can fairly ask if a large part of Haiti's
notorious "corruption" is, in fact, imported from abroad.
Canada's engineering darling
The mainstream press in Canada is reporting
on
the sorry spectacle that has befallen SNC-Lavalin, described
by the Globe and Mail as "a respected Canadian company and one
of the world's largest engineering firms." The firm employs
28,000 people. As things happen, it is the company that oversaw
the construction of Canada's new embassy in Haiti, completed in
2004.
Following the 2010 earthquake,
there was great hope by big international engineering and
construction firms such as SNC that the "disaster capitalism"
that would guide "reconstruction" in Haiti could earn lots of
profits for them. But as visitors to the earthquake zone are
only too aware, there is nary a construction crane in sight. The
world's "largest engineering firms" apparently have little time
or interest in assisting Haiti with large-scale housing projects
and a host of other, pressing humanitarian needs.
SNC-Lavalin's absence from
Haiti is unlikely to change in the short term. The company is
being shaken to its core by a large corruption scandal. Leading
executives have resigned, been arrested, or are facing criminal
charges. The company's stock price has dropped by some 40%.
There are reports that only a takeover can rescue the company.
In February, the head of SNC's
construction division resigned amidst revelations that $56
million in expenditures he had approved to secure contracts in
North Africa had disappeared. Riadh Ben Aissa has now been
arrested by Swiss authorities for alleged corruption, fraud and
money laundering.
A former company
vice-president, Stephane Roy, was supposed to act as an overseer
for the large amounts of money that Mr. Ben Aissa was authorized
to spend. But he is also involved in the allegations of
disappeared funds. He also resigned in February.
CBC News
reported one week ago that at least one whistleblower at SNC
informed the board of directors months ago that for years,
hundreds of millions of dollars of payments were funneled by
company executives with little scrutiny to shell companies in
Libya in order to secure contracts from the government there.
SNC had a long association with
the regime of Muammar Gadaffi,
including the construction of Libya’s largest prison.
SNC's interim CEO, Ian Bourne,
expects more fraudulent transactions will show up during
investigations. And in theory, criminal charges could be laid in
Canada. The Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act dating
from 1999 makes it illegal to pay bribes to foreign governments
or agencies.
From the "Code of Ethics " page
of the SNC-Lavalin website: "The company's integrity and
reputation for ethical practices are among its most valued
assets and are essential elements in its continued quest for
sustained profitability."
Members of the board of
directors of SNC-Lavalin are a who's who among Canada's business
elite, including Gwyn Morgan (Enbridge Inc), Senator Hugh Segal
(former chief of staff of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney), Pierre
Lessard (Metro Inc), Claude Mongeau (CN Rail) and billionaire
investor Stephen Jarislowsky. The latter is the company's
largest shareholder with 14% of its stock.
Quebec government reeling
SNC-Lavalin is headquartered in Montreal
and enjoys an especially close relationship to the government of
Quebec. That government and its ruling Liberal Party are
presently reeling from revelations of their close ties to the
criminal underworld that runs much of the construction industry
in the province. The Globe and Mail explained on Apr. 20:
"Allegations of corruption in major construction projects have
tainted all levels of government from smaller municipalities to
bigger cities, spreading to the Quebec government and federal
officials."
The government has been obliged
to establish a formal inquiry into the matter, headed by Quebec
Superior Court Justice France Charbonneau. It is supposed to
begin public hearings this fall and report by 2013. Meanwhile,
the special "anti-corruption" squad of police forces in the
province is conducting no less than 16 separate investigations
of its own.
As if the Charbonneau
commission's task was not already complicated enough, it must
also deal with the stonewalling of Canada's federal police
force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. The force is refusing
to release to the commission the results of years of
investigations it has conducted on criminal practices in the
construction industry, including relations with the Quebec Mafia
and other criminal organizations.
Canada's federal police force: Model
trainers for Haitian counterparts?
The RCMP has been present in Haiti for more
than 20 years on various missions on behalf of the Canadian
government in the name of training Haitian police in the methods
of good policing. But back at home, the force's credibility
among Canadians is at an historic low. What credentials does the
RCMP bring to Haiti?
It took the arrest of Riadh Ben
Aissa by Swiss authorities more than one week ago to give new
legs to the investigation of SNC. That's because the RCMP is
notorious in the developed capitalist world for its poor record
in investigating and prosecuting cases of corporate larceny or
corruption. (Switzerland's involvement stems from the large
number of charities registered in Switzerland by Libya’s Gadaffi
family.)
The RCMP's credibility has for
years been rocked by controversy over the deaths of unarmed
citizens at the hands of its officers, including the most
notorious case, that of Polish visitor to Canada, Robert
Dziekanski, at the Vancouver airport in 2007. Still, the
killings continue.
Now a new scandal has broken.
Dozens of former female RCMP officers have launched a
class action lawsuit over the sexual violence they suffered
at the hands of their fellow officers or bosses.
How low have RCMP fortunes
sunk? Last year, at the time of his appointment as the new
commissioner (top dog) of the RCMP, Bob Paulsen told CBC News
that the "changes" he proposes for the force are the RCMP’s
"last chance" to save itself as an institution.
Police crimes in Canada are not
limited to the national force. The Toronto Star, Canada's
largest daily newspaper, has just completed two special series
on policing across the country. One has been nominated for a
national journalism award and is titled "Known to Police." It
looks at the practice of police compiling dossiers on hundreds
of thousands of Canadians who have encountered police in routine
checks but committed no illegal acts.
The other series is titled
"Police Who Lie" and it examines more than 100 cases of police
officers who lied to judges and courts while under oath.
In addition to the RCMP,
Quebec's provincial police force and many municipal forces in
the province are part of the Canadian police mission in Haiti.
Quebec police have been conducting exceptionally violent attacks
on the mass, student strike and protest movement that has shaken
the province over the past three months.
Waste and deception, associated with
imperialist warmaking
The credibility of Canada's national
government is being seriously challenged by fallout from two
close cousins of corruption-waste and deception. It's no
accident that these are closely bound up to Canada's military
industries.
The government has been lying
to the Canadian people over its untendered and unilateral
decision to purchase new F35 fighter jets from the U.S. military
merchant Lockheed Martin. It said the planes would cost some $15
billion, including operational costs over their life span. Turns
out the real figure is twice that amount.
The government is dealing with
embarrassing cost numbers on a fleet of four used submarines
that a predecessor government purchased from Great Britain in
1998 for $750 million. The ships were so badly designed that
they have never been used. Since their purchase, they have
consumed more than their purchase price in repair work.
The costs of Canada's
increasing war posture in the world are staggering. From 2005 to
2011, military expenditures have risen by 54%, to more than $23
billion for 2011. Several tens of billions are earmarked for a
new fighter jet and even more will be spent on a new warship
program announced at the beginning of this year. Billions more
spending in new equipment for Canada's army is well underway.
In all of these projected
military expenditures, serious spending overruns are just part
of the game.
Corruption among the overseers
Canada is not the only player in Haiti to
be enmeshed in corruption scandals. The U.S. company Wal-Mart,
one of the world's largest corporations, suffered a drop in its
stock price earlier this month following publication in the
Apr. 22 New York Times of a book-length study
of how the company paid tens of millions of dollars in bribes in
Mexico in and around the year 2005 in order to win speedy
approval of expansion plans in the country.
Especially damaging was the
Times' discovery that company higher-ups tried to hush up
the reports of bribes and prevent further investigation.
Wal-Mart puts great stock in its claims to operate on the
highest ethical principles (notwithstanding its notorious
hostility to the right of its workers to join a union).
Meanwhile, the U.S. government
and media are being drawn inexorably into the scandal
surrounding the conduct of international media mogul Rupert
Murdoch. He holds 27 media licenses in the United States,
including the venerable Wall Street Journal. Some
senators and congressmen want to know if Murdoch's outlets
enjoyed the same cozy relationship with political leaders and
committed the same criminal violations of privacy laws in the
U.S. as it did in Britain.
In Brazil, the takeover of poor
neighbourhoods in Rio Di Janeiro by the police and army in
anticipation of several large international extravaganzas to
take place in the city has led to
accusations by local residents that police are taking bribes
from the very drug dealers they were supposed to displace.
Corruption, lies, waste – it's
all endemic to capitalism, and the rot starts at the top.
Haiti's people are no more and no less the victims of these
social illnesses than others. They are as capable of tackling
them as any other people. Their right to do so should be
respected.
Corruption in Haiti? Whose
influences and whose practices lie at the root of the problem?
Haitians shouldn't have to suffer the hypocrisy of accusers
bearing false credentials.
Roger Annis is a coordinator of the
Canada Haiti Action Network (CHAN) and its Vancouver affiliate,
Haiti Solidarity BC. This article was originally published on
rabble.ca. |