HAITI ELECTIONS UPDATE - REVISED BUDGET SHOWS

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 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