According to the Citizen Observatory for the Institutionalization of Democracy (OCID), for the week of December 3 to 7, the Senate was finally able to carry out 2 plenary sessions (December 4 and 6) after 3 months of dysfunction.

During the December 4 session the Senators looked at the report of the Justice Commission, concerning the vacant seats # 5 and # 6 at the Court of Cassation. 16 senators out of 19 present approved a list of 3 postulants for the seat 5 (Judges Frantz Brice, Altenor Barthelemy, Audeline Saint-Joseph) and 3 for the seat 6 (Maggy Florestal, Paul Lamothe, René Sylvestre). The Head of State will have to choose a candidate for each of the seats from this list.

The second point raised was the convening by the Justice and Public Security Commission, of members of the National Police Superior Council (CSPN) on the deterioration of the country's security situation and the failure of certain police operations...

At the meeting of December 6, at the invitation of the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Committee of the Senate, the Minister Ronald December (Economy), Jean Roudy Aly (Justice) and the Directors General, Jude Jacques Elibert (ONI) and Fils-Aime Ignace Saint-Fleur (BMPAD) answered questions from the 16 Senators present on the $ 27 million contract concluded between the Haitian State and the German firm Demalog https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-25372-haiti-politic-$27m-to-replace-new-equipment.html

Major anomalies were raised by senators, including: The presence of the first lady Martine Moïse to the delegation who had gone to France for the signing of the contract https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-26359-haiti-politic-case-dermalog-denial-of-the-office-of-the-first-lady-martine-moise.html ; The Superior Court of Accounts and Administrative Disputes (CSC/CA) had not given a favorable opinion to the signing of this contract; The choice of the German firm (27 million dollars) while a local firm had proposed to modernize the ONI for only 2.8 million US dollars...

the Senate unanimously described this operation as embezzlement and promised to deepen the investigation in order to submit a final report to the Senators Assembly. Pending this report, the Senate has asked the Director of ONI to stop all expenses related to this project.

IH/ iciHaiti