Lack of communication prevents the public from accessing essential services provided by the state
The relocation of several ministries and other public offices in Port-au-Prince due to the violence complicates users’ access to these essential public services in a context where the State communicates little about the changes of premises.
Bern Christy, a recent baccalaureate graduate, explains that in May 2025, he had difficulty finding the new address of the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP) to obtain his diploma.
To receive our investigations, reports, and explanatory pieces on WhatsApp, click here.
« I had to go through several addresses passed on by word of mouth before finally finding a precariously furnished space at the Lycée National de Pétion-Ville, » Bern Christy explained to AyiboPost.
Christy denounces a “lack of institutional communication” on the exact location of the various services of this ministry, scattered across several buildings in the metropolitan area of Port-au-Prince.
Contacted by AyiboPost, Rock Lindor, an agronomist, claims to have faced the same situation in March 2025 when trying to legalize a relative’s baccalaureate diploma with the MENFP.
“I didn’t know where the services were located. And there were no guidelines anywhere,” he explains.
AyiboPost visited around ten relocated public offices in the metropolitan area during this project. In most cases, there were no signs indicating their presence.
A situation which is part of a context already marked by a certain lack of responsiveness within Haitian public institutions.
The telephone numbers and email addresses usually used to contact these institutions are, in most cases, inactive or remain unanswered.
Long clustered in downtown Port-au-Prince, important Haitian public institutions have gradually deserted their historic location in the lower part of the capital.
Ministries, general directorates and secretariats of state are now scattered throughout the metropolitan area, occupying temporary buildings in Delmas, Pétion-Ville, Tabarre, or even on the outskirts of the commune of Port-au-Prince.
This relocation accelerated following coordinated attacks by armed gangs in February 2024. These attacks targeted several private and public infrastructures in the capital.
Most institutions have been relocated where a minimum of security can be ensured, whether in buildings originally designed as hotels or in former private residences now rented by the state.
Read more: Institutions are relocating outside of P-au-P. Is this decentralization?
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI), initially located on Rue Légitime in Port-au-Prince, was forced to move its staff to two premises in Delmas 75, specifically in Catalpa 12 and Catalpa 1.
The initial building, constructed after the 2010 earthquake, cost the Haitian government around ten million US dollars, from PetroCaribe funds.
The institution, which has nearly 600 employees, is implementing various strategies to ensure the continuity of its activities in a difficult context.
« The teams are working in rotation, according to schedules spread over different days, in order to adapt to these new premises, » informs an official within the administration.
An online platform has been set up by the institution to facilitate access to certain services, adds another employee of the institution.
Contacted by AyiboPost, the Minister of Trade and Industry (MCI), James Monazard, described a particularly difficult logistical situation since the institution’s move.
One of the buildings housing the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) located at Catalpa 1, Delmas 75 | July 22, 2025
The entrance to the building housing the MCI at Catalpa 1, in Delmas 75 | July 22, 2025
« The new space is not suitable. It cannot accommodate all of our services, which significantly reduces our performance compared to what we could have offered in our old premises, » the minister said.
Several important services—such as industrial lender, trademark service, trade name or patent service—do not have space to function properly.
« The Legal Affairs Department, which is one of the most operational departments in the ministry and which has nearly forty employees, can currently only accommodate around ten, » laments Monazard.
The minister assures that he is once again considering the search for a more suitable space, capable of bringing together all of the ministry’s staff.
Other public buildings, such as the Ministry of Tourism and Creative Industries, the Haitian Parliament, the National Palace, the Ministry of the Interior, the Court of Cassation, and the Superior Court of Auditors and Administrative Disputes, are also located in the city center, an area now largely controlled by gangs.
In October 2024, the Minister of Justice and Public Security, Me Carlos Hercule announced the relocation of the courthouse from the Champ de Mars to the Plaza Hotel, located on Capois Street near the Champ de Mars.
The institution had already abandoned its premises at the Bicentennial in Port-au-Prince about five years ago.
This new location was to house the Port-au-Prince Court of First Instance, the public prosecutor’s office, the Court of Appeal, the Penal Reform Commission and the National Council for Legal Assistance (CNAL) – institutions initially housed in the Special Labor Court building in Lalue.
The new premises of the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince, located in Fragneau Ville, Delmas75 | July 22, 2025
The entrance to the new premises of the Court of First Instance in Port-au-Prince, located in Frangneau Ville, in Delmas 75 | July 22, 2025
But officials had to reassess this decision, due to the worsening insecurity in the immediate vicinity of the Champ de Mars.
Relocated and inaugurated in March 2025 in a residential area of Delmas 75, the new premises of the court of first instance are already attracting much criticism.
Facade of the Port-au-Prince Court of Appeal building located in Puits Blain, Route de Frères. | July 22, 2025
Contacted by AyiboPost, Iswick Théophin, a lawyer practicing in this jurisdiction, expressed his dissatisfaction with the logistical conditions of the new location, which he considers unsuitable for the mission of justice.
« The space is extremely limited. No hearings are held in the correctional or criminal courts. The investigating judges don’t have an office, » he laments.
The room reserved for the parquet floor, according to its description, consists of only one room subdivided into several workstations.
Deputy government commissioners are conducting hearings there simultaneously.
« It’s a real commotion. The litigants, the lawyers, everyone is talking at the same time. The atmosphere is chaotic, totally unsuitable for a peaceful justice system, » he continues, adding that the space intended for police custody was hastily installed under a staircase and can only hold a few detainees.
Other institutions that are just as strategic for the country have also had to move a large part of their staff.
This is the case of the Bank of the Republic of Haiti (BRH), whose headquarters, formerly located on Pavée Street in the city center, is now housed in a new building in Musseau. Some departments still continue to operate in their original premises, under heavy police escort, an employee of the institution informed AyiboPost.
There is no sign indicating the presence of the institution at the premises located in Delmas 60.
According to another bank employee, who declined to speak on behalf of the institution, « We don’t pay rent. The BRH already had this space, and we simply decided to occupy it in order to continue providing our services. »
When it is not a question of direct gang attacks, it is sometimes movements of populations fleeing violence that force public institutions to abandon their premises.
The Ministry of Culture and Communication (MCC), the Office for the Protection of Citizens (OPC) in Bourdon and the Faculty of Applied Linguistics (FLA) in Bois-Verna are concerned by this situation.
Contacted by AyiboPost, Yves Roblin, Director General of the Ministry of National Education and Vocational Training (MENFP), confided that, of the sixteen sites occupied by the institution in the metropolitan region, approximately ten had to be relocated outside the center of Port-au-Prince to other areas of the capital, due to insecurity. AyiboPost has identified two premises in Musseau, two in Delmas 83, and others in Delmas 48, Delmas 69, Delmas 77, as well as in Puits-Blain.
The service for requesting and delivering high school diplomas, for example, now operates in a space set up within the Lycée National de Pétion-Ville after leaving the Nazon area, which was attacked by gangs in November 2024.
This dispersion complicates public access to administrative services.
Acknowledging the lack of communication regarding new office locations, Yves Roblin admits a drop in attendance for certain services, notably the legalization of documents.
« This service, formerly located in the city center, has been transferred to Puits-Blain, a less central and less well-known area, » admits the manager, promising to make more efforts in communicating the location of services in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area.
MENFP staff also face constraints linked to their new assignments. Junior Léo, a ministry employee assigned to the Delmas 83 office, complains of a logistically unsuitable workspace.
« Sometimes you have to mark your place so you can find it again, because there isn’t a fixed workstation for everyone, » explains Léo, who is also a union representative within the National Association of Haitian Education Workers (RENTRHED).
« The Ministry of National Education is one of the public institutions with the largest number of employees, spread across different departments. We’re talking about a thousand employees, » Yves Roblin emphasizes.
« It is particularly difficult in the current context to find a space capable of accommodating all our services, » he says.
In January 2016, the Haitian government is launching a project to build a central headquarters for the MENFP on Avenue Jean Paul II, intended to replace the old offices destroyed during the 2010 earthquake. Estimated at 12 million dollars – including 8 million from the IDB and four million from the public treasury – the building was to be delivered for the start of the 2017-2018 school year.
Read also: Photos | Testimonies of gang victims living with untreated injuries and trauma in P-au-P-Q
But the work was never completed.
The massive relocation of public services, often poorly communicated, to other areas of the metropolitan area causes a geographical imbalance in supply.
Jephtée Charles, a resident of Canapé-Vert, says he has had difficulty renewing his passport since the department responsible for his jurisdiction was relocated to Pétion-Ville.
« All the institutions will be located in Pétion-Ville or Delmas, while the rest of the residents of Port-au-Prince will no longer have access to any services in their area, » he said.
By : Lucnise Duquereste & Jean Feguens Regala
Jérôme Wendy Norestyl contributed to this report.
Cover |The new premises of the Court of First Instance of Port-au-Prince, located in Fragneau Ville, Delmas75. | July 22, 2025. Photos :Jean Feguens Regala
► AyiboPost is dedicated to providing accurate information. If you notice any mistake or error, please inform us at the following address : hey@ayibopost.com
Keep in touch with AyiboPost via:
► Our channel Telegram : Click here
►Notre Channel WhatsApp : Click here
►Our Community WhatsApp : Click here
Comments