"Does CARICOM really want to help the Haitian people, or not?"

Published on: 3/27/2010.

by TREVOR YEARWOOD

NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANISATIONS (NGOs) bent on enriching themselves, CARICOM's "collapsed" presence, and aid agencies trying to outdo each other have added to the problems of the Haiti relief effort.

This complaint was made Thursday by the man United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan named his special advisor on Haiti in 2004, former Trinidadian diplomat Reginald Dumas.

Dumas told a meeting at Starcom Network Inc. on Thursday that a major problem was the fact that so many aid agencies were bent on outdoing each other, to the point where there was no co-operation - not even with the government in Port au Prince.

There was "a monumental lack of co-ordination involving assistance to Haiti", and this was despite the many meetings dealing with the relief effort, he charged.

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