Cash flows through Haiti’s public administration. It makes transactions almost impossible for anti-corruption units to detect
Last year, presidential adviser Frinel Joseph carried out several cash transactions, sometimes for amounts exceeding 100,000 gourdes, at the Villa d’Accueil. Two sources familiar with the situation nickname him “President Cash,” because of his propensity to conduct his dealings in banknotes.
This is not an isolated case. Cash transactions involving large sums were the preference of the vast majority of the Presidential Council, whether for matters related to power or for private expenses, according to a source close to the structure that was dissolved on February 7, 2026.
The president-advisers also received significant amounts from the state “in cash,” an abnormal practice prior to their arrival and one they did not put an end to.
A voting member of the Presidential Council told AyiboPost that he received 3.5 million gourdes (about 27,000 U.S. dollars) in cash for his staff. This amount does not include his salary, which he estimates at more than half a million gourdes per month.
The adviser says he used this sum to feed 36 people, including police officers assigned to him and about ten other employees.
It is unclear whether all the advisers received the same amounts.
Despite repeated public calls for greater transparency in the management of state spending, the Presidential Council never disclosed in detail the exact sums received by each of its members, nor the accountability mechanisms concerning funds spent outside their salaries. This opacity also extends to the current government.
“One cannot talk about transparency and good governance with these kinds of transactions that leave almost no trace,” Marie Rosy Auguste Ducéna, program director at the National Human Rights Defense Network, told AyiboPost.
According to Ducéna, “cash allows the corrupt to thrive and line their pockets.”
A voting member of the Presidential Council told AyiboPost that he received 3.5 million gourdes (about 27,000 U.S. dollars) in cash for his staff. This amount does not include his salary, which he estimates at more than half a million gourdes per month.
Most of the president-advisers, as well as some ministers, have another, more practical reason for favoring cash in certain transactions.
The Anti-Corruption Unit (ULCC) and the Financial and Economic Affairs Bureau (BAFE) of the Central Directorate of the Judicial Police (DCPJ) have grown stronger in recent years. Even in the absence of a fully effective judicial system, the reports produced by these institutions resonate in the press and are often used by the international community to impose sanctions.
“Cash does in fact make it possible to escape the control of these institutions,” confides a source close to the president-advisers.
The overuse of cash, already widespread in the country’s economy, facilitates money laundering and fuels public distrust.
In December 2024, bandits attacked the General Hospital during a failed attempt to reopen the institution. Two journalists, along with a police officer who was on a nearby street, were killed on the spot. Seven other media workers were injured.
One of the victims, Balthazar Reginald, was hit by bullets in the lung and the buttocks.
He says he received a visit from the Minister of Justice, Patrick Pélissier, who at the time promised the journalists support from the state. In total, Reginald says he received about 400,000 gourdes “in cash.” Other survivors also received amounts in banknotes.
Reginald nonetheless says he is “dissatisfied” and harbors doubts about the entire process, not knowing how much was actually disbursed in the name of the victims.
Within the state, the overuse of cash transactions encourages embezzlement, but not all of them are necessarily illegal. AyiboPost contacted the Ministry of Justice and Public Security via the Yahoo address listed on its website, without receiving a response before publication. Pastor Joseph did not respond to calls or messages.
Haiti, one of the poorest states in the hemisphere, ranks among the fifteen worst countries in Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index.
Over the years, corruption has enabled the theft of billions of dollars in public funds, as illustrated by the still unresolved PetroCaribe funds scandal.
According to some studies, poverty is not the source of corruption. On the contrary, it is corruption that feeds and perpetuates poverty.
And in Haiti, cash lies at the heart of the system, according to specialists.
Several state institutions, such as the General Tax Directorate, the Third-Party Vehicle Insurance Office (OAVCT), and even courts, receive cash from users of public services.
Yet best practices recommend electronic payments or bank deposits in order to prevent these institutions from accumulating funds that can easily be diverted.
In 2021, in a report, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) criticized the continued existence of several dozen public administration accounts opened at the Bank of the Republic of Haiti, a situation that complicates cash-management planning.
“One cannot talk about transparency and good governance with these kinds of transactions that leave almost no trace,” Marie Rosy Auguste Ducéna, program director at the National Human Rights Defense Network, told AyiboPost.
This persistence is often explained by the refusal of certain managing departments to lose control of their accounts, according to the OECD. They thus oppose the centralized management of public funds in order to preserve a certain opacity in their use, by circumventing the administrative controls of the budget authority, the organization says.
The OECD recommends setting up a single Treasury account as an effective mechanism to plan, manage, and monitor budget execution. Such an account would make it possible to streamline payments and reduce the cost of government financing by the Central Bank, while improving financial transparency.
Administrative shortcomings and the persistent use of cash allow officials to use state money to carry out transactions without leaving a trace.
“I fought with ministers who preferred cash,” a former senior official at the Ministry of Economy and Finance told AyiboPost. He mentions the use of banknotes to finance, in particular, so-called “confidential” communication activities or the multiple intelligence services.
These services constitute real black boxes where money received and spent in the name of the state is not linked to any accounting or audit system capable of protecting sources and methods while combating corruption, according to sources familiar with how they operate.
“It’s a roundabout way of stealing state money,” says a source aware of the expenditures.
Cover | On the occasion of Haiti’s National Independence Day celebrations, the Prime Minister, accompanied by the President of the Presidential Transition Council (CPT), His Excellency Laurent Saint-Cyr, and the presidential advisors, was present at the Villa d’Accueil on Thursday, January 1, 2026. Photo: Office of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Haiti.
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