Ministry of Interior Update - November 23, 2007

During this week in Haiti, I went to the Ministry of Interior (MOI) two days. I am happy to report that things look so much better and much more organized these days.

Mr. Guerdy, the gentleman who in the past was the only one to do the interview form, is on vacation. At first, when I learned that he was on vacation, my first though was, "Oh no! No interviews for a month?!" -- But then I was happy to see that there are four people in MOI who are now doing the birth & adoptive parent interview forms.

There are two people who are re-writing the interview forms in pretty handwriting and are cutting and gluing the passport photos of the adopted child and adopting family onto the form.

In the past, Mr. Guerdy was the only person working in MOI who did the interview forms. At most, he could get 10-12 of these forms done per day, which created a backlog. Now, there are four people steadily working on interviews.

Things have really improved in getting the interviews done! These people are working 8 hours per day, they take two short breaks and a one-hour lunch break, but the rest of the time, they are working!

I asked why the interview forms cannot be done on a computer form because that would be a much faster process, but I was told that the director does not want computer generated forms. The director wants them to be hand-written. The reasoning is that if the forms are hand-written, they are more accurate.

While Mr. Guerdy is on vacation, only the clerks who are re-writing the forms in nice hand writing are working in the second floor office. All interviews in his absence are taking place in the Director of Political Affairs, Mr. Guignard's office downstairs.

His office consists of three rooms, one is his office, one is a reception/ waiting area and one is the interview room. Every day, it is slam packed with orphanage representatives who are there to get the interviews done.

There are three five-drawer locking (safe) tall filing cabinets that hold the adoption files. I was so glad to see that they are securely locked up. There are literally hundreds of files in the interview office. They are not organized by file number per se, but are bundled by orphanage lots. (I may be wrong in that, but that is what I observed.) Also, when you are asking for a file, you have to give its number. That also gives me an idea that they may be filed a little differently?

Anyway... while I was in the office, I saw a U.N. inspector. (I also saw UNICEF representatives at IBESR when I was there today.) Having inspectors in in the Director of Political Affairs office may explain his need to read through every file that he is supposed to sign off on. If the Haitian government offices that are dealing in adoptions are inspected by the U.N. then it is only logical that "all i's are dotted and all t's are crossed", so to speak.

In the past, I had been told that the reason that it takes so long for the Mr. Guignard to sign the adoption letter to Immigration is because he has so many other duties. As I observed in his office, I came to the conclusion that this is true. Even though 90% of the people who come to his office are there for the interview and to check on files. However, it appears that the adoptions make up about 10% of Mr. Guignard's total work load.

When I suggested that Mr. Guignard get some additional assistance, just like Mr. Guerdy got additional assistance, I was told that Mr. Guignard in his position as director is expected to get all the work done without assistance. (It did not make much sense to me, but that explains some things, wouldn't you agree?) In order to read all the adoption related documents and to issue the letter with signature, would require somebody to work full-time without any other duties. Thus, there is a big backlog of files....waiting and waiting...to be signed.