The State Department's 2019 Report on Fiscal Transparency recognizes that Haiti has made significant progress in meeting the minimum transparency requirements by publishing its year-end budget report and information on the transparency of public finances, debt obligations, stressing however that much remains to be done.

""[...] Haiti made significant progress by publishing its end-of-year budget report and information on debt obligations. During the review period, the government made its executive budget proposal, enacted budget, and end-of-year report widely and easily accessible to the general public, including online. Information on debt obligations was publicly available.

However :

Publicly available budget documents did not provide a substantially complete picture of the government’s planned expenditures and revenue streams, including natural resource revenues.

The budget did not provide sufficient detail for each ministry or agency and did not include allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises.

The government maintained off-budget accounts that were not subject to the same oversight and audit as other expenditures.

Its military budget was not subject to civilian oversight. Haiti’s supreme audit institution partially reviewed the government’s accounts, but it did not make its report publicly available within a reasonable period of time.

The criteria and procedures by which the national government awards contracts or licenses for natural resource extraction were specified in law and decree. The government did not appear to follow contracting laws and regulations in practice. Basic information on natural resource extraction awards was only sporadically publicly available.

Haiti’s fiscal transparency would be improved by:

• publishing greater detail on revenue sources and types, as well as expenditures by ministry,

• providing more detail on allocations to and earnings from state-owned enterprises,

• subjecting its military budget to civilian oversight,

• ensuring adequate audit and oversight for off-budget accounts,

• improving the reliability of budget documents by producing and publishing a supplemental budget when actual revenues and expenditures do not correspond to those in the enacted budget,

• ensuring the supreme audit institution audits the government’s accounts and publishes the resulting audit reports,

• consistently adhering to laws and regulations for contracting and licensing in natural resource extraction, and

• routinely publishing basic information on natural resource extraction awards.

SL/ HaitiLibre