PORT-AU-PRINCE, Jan. 3 (IPS) — The flow of aid into Haiti since the Sept. 1994 intervention led by the United States has been slow in reaching the ground, according to donors and Haitian government officials.

‘’We knew it would be difficult, but we underestimated how difficult,’’ World Bank official Stefan Fluckiger told IPS in a recent interview.

He conceded that the level of the Bank’s aid to Haiti this past year has been ‘’very dismal.’’

The World Bank, one of the most important source of funds for the Haitian government, dispersed only 15 million dollars in direct project assistance in the year following the return of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. But like other multi-lateral banks and donor agencies active in Haiti, a good chunk of the World Bank’s activity in Haiti centers on balance of payments support – a total of 40 million dollars this past year.

The Bank’s record in Haiti underscores the trend of among international financial institutions and donor agencies active here this year. Generally, they have been strong on ‘’invisible’’ payments, like in helping to pay back arrears on Haiti’s international debt, or financing imports through balance of payments support, according to financial analysts.

Donors and multi-lateral banks have been relatively weak in getting different social and economic projects up and running, and that trend looks set to continue well into the forthcoming year, say donors and Haitian government officials.

In 1995, donors and banks dispersed some 164.5 million dollars for balance of payments and budgetary support, according to government figures. In addition, nine countries chipped in some USD 67 million to pay Haiti’s debt arrears.

The balance of payment funds are generally paid directly to Haiti’s Central Bank to finance imports, like petroleum, or to pay its debt service, both of which must be paid for in dollars.

Just for the first three quarters of this year, for instance, Haiti’s trade deficit with the United States, its main trading partner, hit a record USD 320 million, according to U.S. Department of Commerce figures. That ‘’dollar’’ gap was covered by two main sources.

– Remittances from the more than one million Haitians living abroad estimated at anywhere between USD 100 million to 500 million per year.

– International financial institutions and donors make up the bulk of Haiti’s remaining foreign exchange – financing through balance of payments support at least 45 percent of the USD 350 million Haitian government budget this past year.

For 1996, the institutions and donors say they’ll provide another USD 137 million, a sum contingent upon the government implementing a privatisation program.

Last January, more than two dozen bi-lateral agencies and multi- lateral banks pledged 1.2 billion dollars, broken down over two years, to help relaunch Haiti’s battered economy. About USD 430 million of that total came from ‘’old commitments’’ — pledges prior to the bloody Sept. 1991 coup that ousted President Aristide.

In return for this support, the Haitian government agreed to implement a sweeping Structural Adjustment Program (SAP). Donors and the international financial institutions required the government to reduce the size of the civil service, privatize nine state-owned companies, and reduce or eliminate a broad range of import and export tariffs. At the same time, the government had to increase prices of some commodities, stiffen some taxation measures, and maintain low wages.

That deal broke apart in a swirl of bitter exchanges between the two sides in October. The cabinet refused to accept Prime Minister Smarck Michel’s privatisation package, and he resigned. In return, the insitutions, and bi-lateral donors, withheld some 137 million dollars in crucial balance of payments support.

Both sides agree that the much hyped aid package has failed to achieve concrete results for the Haitian people.

‘’The money to create projects and create jobs has been inadequate,’’ said Lesley Voltaire, a top aide to Aristide. He said in the agricultural sector only 15 percent of pledges have been engaged.

Ironically, a good portion of the 576 million that donors and international financial institutions pledged for Haiti this past year has been disbursed — about 80 percent, according to an IPS survey of the major agencies. But much of those loans and grants are not targeted at long-term, sustainable development projects.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the largest and most active donor this past year, granted some 147 million dollars in the one year following Aristide’s return. About USD 40 million was in the form of balance of payments support, and the rest went into areas like training Haiti’s new police force, food aid, short-term labor intensive job programs, and municipal, parliamentary and presidential elections.

USAID requested 90 million dollars for Haiti for fiscal 1996 (Oct. 1, 1995 – Sept. 30, 1996), although U.S. development officials were not optimistic of U.S. Congressional approval of the full amount.

The European Union (EU) gave about 46 million dollars last year, of which approximatelky one-third went for balance of payments support, according to an EU official. The EU aims to grant another (USD 107 million over the next year or so, including some 9.2 million dollars in balance of payments support.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) loaned USD 70 million in the one year following the return of President Aristide, including USD 40 million in balance of payments support.

Phillipe Dewez, the head of the IDB in Haiti, said that the bank loaned to Haiti more than six times its normal level this past year. The bank expects to disburse another 230 million dollars in the future.

The World Bank’s portfolio, which includes some USD 55 million loaned to Haiti in the one year following President Aristide’s return, stretches back to 1987. Its nine projects, focused on water, power, employment, and roads, aim to spend some USD 175 million in the near future – including USD 35 million in balance of payments support and USD 11.5 million in technical support for the structural adjustment program.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) provided a stand-by arrangement of 31 million dollars this past year and, according to Haitian government officials, will provide another USD 45 million once a structural adjustment program has been fully approved by the new government of President-elect Rene Preval.

But with a new president slated to take office next month, and the swearing in soon after of the third government in the last 16 months, prospects for any significant progress on aid flows remain bleak, analysts said.(END/IPS/dc/mk/96)

Origin: Rome/HAITI/ ----

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