Suspicions at MAST and the Ministry of Defense: Human Rights Organizations at the Forefront
By La Rédaction · Port-au-Prince
· 3 min read · Updated 24 April 2026
Translated from French — AI-assisted and reviewed by the editorial team. The French version is authoritative. Read the original · About our translation policy
PORT-AU-PRINCE.—Several human rights organizations, including the Order of Human Rights Defenders (ORDEDH), the Haitian Observatory for Law and Freedom of the Press (OHDLP), the Haitian League for Human Rights (LHDH 2007), the Anti-Corruption Trade Union Brigade (BSAC), Action of Motivated Units for a Haiti of Law (AUMOHD), among others, are requesting from the ULCC a diligent investigation into serious suspicions of corruption within the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, and the Ministry of Defense.
The correspondence, jointly initialed by about fifteen human rights organizations, is expressly addressed to the Director of the ULCC, Hantz Ludwing Joseph, to alert about suspicions of corruption within the aforementioned Ministries.
To begin with, these organizations express their concern regarding the disastrous consequences of corruption in Haiti. They then refer to the eight-day clear deadline that was granted to Minister Georges Wilbert Franc to provide details concerning two cases:
1.- Budget allocation and subsidies on a detailed report on the budget allocated to MAST and an exhaustive list of organizations that received subsidies from the Public Treasury through your ministry between May 2024 and May 2025.
2.- The MonCash back-to-school program: the total number of beneficiaries of the 20,000 gourdes MonCash service, conducted in collaboration with Digicel by the NfENFP, as well as a breakdown of beneficiaries and amounts distributed.
With the ultimatum expired, the signatories of the request draw the ULCC's attention to the authorities' silence, which they primarily describe as contempt for accountability, a guiding principle of good governance and an effective state.
Regarding the Ministry of Defense, it was noted that a list circulating online shows ordinary employees of the Ministry of Defense having amounts exceeding five hundred thousand gourdes on their debit cards, the signatory organizations mentioned.
“Information we have suggests that these employees benefiting from these large sums on their debit cards are close to Minister Jean-Michel MOISE, his Chief of Staff, Emmanuel PAUL, and administrator Nobert CHERY, and that they would receive these sums just for a small commission and pay the rest to the Minister,” they asserted.
Other information, they write, suggests that for a fleet of 25 vehicles purchased for the Ministry, only 10 were delivered, with exorbitant commission benefits for Minister MOISE. Yet, this Ministry, which should be very useful in the current context of insecurity, is completely absent.
In this regard, the signatories of the request urge the ULCC director to conduct a thorough investigation into the potential suspicions of corruption within these public institutions concerning the allocation of subsidies and the implementation of the MonCash back-to-school program, and into the alarming revelations regarding presumptions of corruption.
