The United States’ efforts to help Haiti rebuild after the 2010 earthquake received mixed reviews by the US Government Accountability Office. Millions have been spent only to have projects canceled or, in some cases, not yet completed, after 13 years.

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The US Government Accountability Office released a report on US efforts to help Haiti rebuild after the devastating 2010 earthquake, and the conclusions are the same as in previous findings: canceled projects, reduced allocations, cost overruns and delays.

This includes the ongoing construction of the new State University Hospital, also known as the General Hospital of Port-au-Prince, which is now expected to be completed in June 2024 – 10 years later than planned and about $29 million over the initial budget agreed upon by the United States, France and Haiti. All three of them jointly fund the project.

“According to USAID, technical issues and political issues resulted in significant delays and cost overruns,” the Government Accountability Office said in its report, referring to USAID.

Released Thursday, GAO’s latest report on Haiti Reconstruction reviewed 29 infrastructure and development projects by USAID in Haiti since the 2010 earthquake, and USAID’s efforts to help build the capacity of local Haitian organizations to implement the projects. The auditors also reviewed the activities of the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs to develop the Haitian National Police during the same period.

The auditors found “mixed results” in efforts to rebuild the police, highlighting several concerns including the failure of anti-drug police officers to ban drugs, which have received funding and training from the United States. Efforts by the United States and others in the international community to rebuild the police force have come under intense scrutiny in light of ongoing gang violence in Haiti.

Aerial view of the General Hospital in Port-au-Prince. The sprawling new hospital campus was one of the first projects approved for the reconstruction of Haiti following the earthquake of January 12, 2010. A decade later, the 534-bed teaching hospital has yet to open its doors to a single patient. Jean-Marc Hervé Abelard for the Miami Herald

Jake Johnston, who has followed Haiti’s reconstruction closely on the Relief and Reconstruction Monitor blog as a senior research fellow at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, said he wasn’t surprised by GAO’s latest findings.

“The real legacy of the American effort during the reconstruction period is what is currently happening in Haiti. You can look at any project, but the result is the situation on the ground today. It was about more than individual aid projects. It was meant to be about ‘building crafts’. Background and Lessons Learned.

In its report, the Government Accountability Office found that the effects of the earthquake exacerbated humanitarian needs in Haiti, which have only increased over the years with ongoing political unrest, gang violence, and social unrest.

While the Government Accountability Office says the quake has caused more than 2,200 deaths and 12,200 injuries, and damaged or destroyed nearly 130,000 homes, the Haitian government, which has recorded the number of bodies its workers hauled away in trucks to the mass graves, puts the death toll toll. . at 316,000.

The auditors found that while some projects such as the power plant in Caracol in northern Haiti were completed and under budget, others had been delayed for years and canceled because costs were higher than initially expected. These include a new port in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien, which was canceled after a $4 million feasibility study was projected to cost between $109 and $183 million—far exceeding the intended budget of $67.5 million; And the expansion of the Karakol power station, with a capacity of 10 megawatts, at a cost of $74 million, to reach 25 megawatts.

A planned $108 project to increase farmers’ access to local markets in three major cities — Cap-Haitien, Saint-Marc and Port-au-Prince — was also canceled after an $80 million budget cut, and USAID was unsuccessful in reducing the scope of the project to meet the new budget.

The report found that “most of the infrastructure activities we reviewed did not achieve the planned results—scopes, costs, and timeframes—as described in the 2011 USAID/Haiti planning documents.”

The exterior of the not yet opened hospital of the State University of Haiti. France and the United States promised Haiti’s sprawling new general hospital after the earthquake of January 12, 2010. Jose A. Iglesias [email protected]

An area of ​​long-term concern is housing and building homes to help the estimated 2.3 million Haitians displaced by the disaster. The USAID housing construction program was riddled with problems, from problems with contractors to shoddy work to cost overruns. And the Government Accountability Office found that not only did homes cost an additional 13% but four years past the deadline. The number of homes to be built has also decreased dramatically.

“USAID/Haiti reduced the scope of activity because it found that the actual costs of building each home and preparing each plot significantly exceeded planned costs,” the report stated. “Specifically, USAID/Haiti has reduced the number of homes it has built from 4,000 to 906 and the land it has prepared from 15,000 to 1,865, according to officials.”

Meanwhile, more than 80% of the homes required emergency repair work due to shoddy construction. Deficiencies included leaking roofs, substandard foundations, wall construction, drainage issues, and improperly installed and substandard sewer and water pipes. The GAO report stated that USAID had reached a legal settlement with the original building contractor to compensate the US government $86,000 for the deficiencies. As of October 2022, the contractor, who makes monthly payments, has paid $24,000 of the total settlement amount.

The GAO said that in 2011, when many of the projects were conceived, they were ambitious and in some cases “unrealistic”.

A similar conclusion was reached in 2015 when a similar report was released after the Government Accountability Office reviewed 23 reconstruction projects and found that while some in health and agriculture had performed well, construction projects still suffered from cost overruns and delays. Observers said that in three cases the USAID mission in Haiti had to cancel projects due to poor performance or insufficient Haitian government support.

“Challenges such as overly ambitious plans, inadequate mission personnel, and slow or revised decisions by the Haitian government have led to delays and lower-than-expected results for most activities,” Director of International Affairs and Trade David Gutnick wrote at the time.

“really awesome”

On Friday, Tarek Talahma, acting director of operations and advocacy at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told reporters at a press briefing on Haiti that the humanitarian situation in the country was “really dire” and “real.” The story on the ground is worse than we thought.”

He noted that just a week before his delegation arrived in Haiti for a two-day visit this week, 136 people had been killed in three days.

“Comparing the situation and how deteriorating it is in Haiti is a huge concern,” said Talahama, who was part of the delegation examining how humanitarian groups are working to help the country’s 12 million people despite the ongoing violence and kidnappings. We have 5.2 million people who need humanitarian aid.

“Nearly half of the population faces food insecurity, but 5% of children in the country are already severely malnourished,” he added. “The people we spoke to said ‘they’re not living.’ We are alive.”

While there are many competing needs in the country, Talahama said, there are three priorities: Haitians need protection and basic services and humanitarian workers need security to deliver services.

“Gangs… are already occupying schools and hospitals. They are waiting for children outside the schools to kidnap them.

Jacqueline Charles has reported on Haiti and the Anglophone Caribbean for the Miami Herald for more than a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist for her coverage of the 2010 Haiti earthquake, she received the 2018 Maria Moores Capote Prize – the most prestigious award for coverage of the Americas.

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