Report on the Draft Budget Settlement Law (RPLR), FY 2021-2022

The Superior Court of Accounts and Administrative Disputes (CSCCA) presents its report on Haiti's Draft Budget Settlement Law (RPLR) for the 2021-2022 fiscal year, emphasizing its role in ensuring transparency and accountability in public finance management. The report identifies several critical issues, including the fact that the decree establishing budget execution was neither signed nor dated, and lacked prior adoption by the Council of Ministers as legally required. Furthermore, the CSCCA found significant deficiencies in the accompanying documentation, such as missing annual performance reports for budgetary programs and an evaluation of the state's off-balance sheet commitments.

The analysis also points to a lack of comparative data in the financial statements, hindering proper evaluation. The CSCCA noted substantial budget overruns and unforeseen expenditures, particularly 23.73 billion gourdes for petroleum product payments, which were not adequately justified by the Ministry of Economy and Finance. Discrepancies were observed between the general account balances from the closing of 2020-2021 and the opening of 2021-2022, as well as within the special Treasury accounts, raising concerns about the integrity of the opening balance.

The report concludes that the declared budget surplus of 1.97 billion gourdes is misleading due to unrecorded expenses, such as those from the National Education Fund (FNE), thereby violating the principle of budgetary sincerity.