US embassy cable - 05PORTAUPRINCE718

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PORT AU PRINCE 000718 
 
SIPDIS 
 
WHA/EX PLEASE PASS USOAS 
NSC FOR SHANNON 
SOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/23/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, EAID, HA, Elections 
SUBJECT: HAITI ELECTIONS UPDATE - REVISED BUDGET SHOWS 
SHORTFALL OF $22 MILLION 
 
REF: A. PORT-AU-PRINCE 249 
 
     B. HONORE-IRVING EMAIL OF MARCH 8 
 
Classified By: Ambassador James B. Foley,  Reason 1.4 (b) and (d). 
 
1.  (SBU)  Summary:  MINUSTAH and OAS technical advisors have 
provided a revised budget estimating the costs for Haiti's 
upcoming elections at just under $61 million, leaving a 
projected funding shortfall of approximately $22 million 
based on current pledges from the IGOH and international 
donors.  SRSG Valdes plans to make a pitch for additional 
contributions at the Cayenne Ministerial.  Voter registration 
is scheduled to begin during the first week of April, and the 
OAS team here remains confident that they can hold to that 
schedule.  The new OAS electoral assistance chief is worried, 
however, at the continuing lack of capacity in the CEP.  End 
Summary. 
 
New budget 
---------- 
 
2. (U) After several weeks of revision and based on the 
results of a field assessment of electoral facilities 
throughout Haiti, MINUSTAH and OAS elections teams presented 
to donor reps March 14 a revised budget estimate of 
$60,740,335 for the total cost of the elections (budget 
emailed to WHA/CAR).  This figure is $21,865,911 above the 
previous estimate, which was (barely) covered by 
international and IGOH financial pledges.  According to 
MINUSTAH elections chief Gerardo LeChevallier, the shortfall 
of $22 million (rounded up) was unavoidable given increased 
and more "realistic" figures for security, civic education, 
facilities and infrastructure, transportation, and a 
contingency reserve.  The shortfall includes an additional 
$3.9 million ($3,894,493) needed by the OAS for the 
registration process.  New OAS elections assistance chief 
Elizabeth Spehar noted that the Provisional Electoral Council 
(CEP) still lacked technical capacity which meant that OAS 
was forced to do more of the work than was originally 
anticipated, and had also been asked to squeeze the 
registration process into three months vice four (see below), 
factors which both led to increased costs. 
 
3. (SBU) LeChevallier and Spehar noted that their 
organizations would use the revised budget to make an urgent 
appeal to donors for additional elections funding at the 
March 18 Cayenne donors' ministerial.  During the discussion 
it became clear, however, that the CEP itself had not seen or 
approved the revised budget (which was developed by MINUSTAH 
and OAS).  At the urging of several donor reps, MINUSTAH and 
the OAS presented the budget to CEP members March 15 for 
their review.  Although several CEP members questioned 
different aspects of the budget, ultimately the CEP approved 
it, though treasurer Francois Benoit told us that the CEP 
"was not happy about it." 
 
Continuing concerns about CEP 
----------------------------- 
 
4.  (SBU) During the donors meeting, Spehar raised very 
pointed concerns about the lack of technical capacity within 
the CEP.  Specifically, she noted that the CEP lacked nearly 
all technical staff to do the actual work of organizing the 
elections.  "Between the 9 CEP members at the top and the 
drivers and secretaries at the bottom, there are few people 
we can work with" she complained.  She reiterated that this 
had forced the OAS to take on more direct registration 
responsibilities that had been anticipated (leading to higher 
costs) and also limited the amount of capacity-building the 
OAS could do.  Echoing what we have heard consistently about 
the CEP members, she said they spend "way too much time" on 
things that should be left to staff (e.g. parsing contract 
details).  USAID elections advisor Sue Nelson, who attended a 
CEP meeting March 15, observed CEP members arguing over tiny 
agenda details and protocol issues, although they eventually 
settled down to review the revised budget. 
 
5. (SBU)  Ironically, the CEP has come under criticism over 
the past week from numerous political actors concerned that 
it is not "in control" of registration and elections 
preparations and that the role of the OAS/international 
community was too strong.  OPL leader Edgar Leblanc 
complained that the OAS was not being transparent enough in 
its efforts to set up and staff registration offices. 
MOCHRENA leader Luc Mesadieu likewise expressed concern about 
the OAS' "unclear" role in the registration process.  Other 
party leaders, as well as the G-184, have expressed similar 
concerns.  There has been a clear nationalist undertone to 
many of these comments, but a member of the Council of 
Eminent Persons reminded us that parties "of course" would be 
disgruntled if they feel left out of the process of filling 
CEP/registration slots. 
 
6. (C) Comment: Tensions among CEP members are nothing new, 
though they seem to have flared up in recent weeks as 
concrete deadlines approach.  Petty personality clashes 
aside, the CEP's real problem is its inability to make 
decisions quickly and the nine members' insistence on being 
involved far too deeply in operational matters that should 
more properly be left to an operations staff.  We and other 
donor reps agreed that this was an issue for the Core Group 
to look at as soon as possible and to raise with the IGOH 
and, possibly, the CEP directly. 
Registration ready to move forward 
---------------------------------- 
 
7.  (U) Spehar (who arrived in country barely a week ago) 
said the OAS voter registration plan was on target and was 
now planned to run for three months, since the voter lists 
had to be ready for the next phase of the electoral process 
(party/candidate registration) in August.  Voter registration 
would begin on April 4.  They hoped to have 15 centers opened 
initially -- five in Port-au-Prince, one in each of the 10 
departmental capitals -- which  would cover 70% of the voter 
population, but Spehar noted that some of them would probably 
not be ready to open until one or two weeks into the process. 
 Additional centers would be phased in over the following 
weeks, until all 424 of the planned centers were opened. 
(Note: Of these, 165 are meant to become permanent CEP 
installations, to be used as departmental or local offices 
and/or polling places).  1982 persons would be hired to staff 
these.  In addition, UNOPS has been given the task of hiring 
and training approximately 3600-4000 unarmed security guards 
for the registration centers, a small number of whom will be 
kept on to provide security for the voting process itself. 
(Note: UNOPS' plan is to hire these from the pool of Haitian 
National Police applicants waiting for a slot in the Police 
Academy. End note) 
 
8. (U) OAS personnel here have coordinated closely with donor 
reps to evaluate bid proposals for registration equipment and 
make recommendations to the OAS's Contracts Award Committee 
at OAS headquarters in Washington.  Among others, contracts 
have been awarded to CompaNet, a Haitian company, for 15 
servers and 185 printers and to Dell Company for 225 
desktop-type computers.  Contract awards are pending in 
Washington for laptop computers, printing of the registration 
forms, fingerprint and signature scanners, digital cameras 
and inkless fingerprint pads.  The request for proposal (RFP) 
for the fingerprint comparison service closed March 15, and 
the RFP for the printing of the voter registration cards 
remains open. 
 
9.  (U) At the registration center, registrants will have to 
prove their identity via birth certificate or other 
permissible document; registration center personnel will 
complete the registration form.  The citizen will then be 
directed with his/her form to the data input clerk who will 
input the information from the form, take a digital photo and 
fingerprints, and have the citizen digitally sign the 
document.  The registrant will be given the tear-off receipt 
from the registration form and asked to return after 30 days 
with the receipt to retrieve his/her voter 
registration/national identification card.  A fingerprint 
comparison service will ensure that there is no duplication 
of registrants.  The OAS is also developing incentives, such 
as a rice lottery, to entice voters to keep their receipts 
safe and to return to collect their cards in a timely manner. 
 Citizens will not be permitted to vote without their 
registration card but OAS experts anticipate that many voters 
will pick up their cards on election day when they go to 
vote. 
 
Comment -- OAS-MINUSTAH atmospherics 
------------------------- 
 
10. (C) Spehar has brought some badly-needed vim and vigor to 
the OAS effort here, which portends well for the 
organization's voter registration effort.  That is the good 
news. The not-so-good news is that she and LeChevallier have 
gotten off to a poor start in their relationship.  Some of it 
is personality, but some of it is substantive.  In the 
donors' meeting, they argued over who had "responsibility" 
for registration security and infrastructure, and Spehar 
criticized LeChevallier's budget for presenting a confused 
picture of OAS budget needs (though she did not question the 
overall numbers).  LeChevallier described Spehar's concerns 
about the lack of CEP technical staff as an "old" problem and 
defended the CEP's sometimes slow processes as being driven 
by a need for excessive "transparency."  Given the importance 
of good coordination between the two organizations, and their 
respective elections chiefs, we will encourage them quietly 
to not let their differences hamper the overall effort. 
FOLEY