'Quake-hit Haiti Wins Two Percent of Contracts'

Less than two percent of US contracts for rebuilding earthquake-hit Haiti are going to Haitian-owned companies, creating just 8,000 local job opportunities, a report says.

Only 20 -- worth $4.3 million -- of the 1,583 US contracts, totaling $267 million, in Haiti are going to Haitian-owned companies, the Associated Press reported on Sunday.

In January, a devastating 7.0-magnitude earthquake jolted Haiti, killing an estimated 250,000 people and rendering more than one million homeless.

An audit carried out this fall by the Inspector General of US AID, one of the largest contractors operating in Haiti, shows that 70 percent of the funds given to the two largest US contractors for reconstruction work in Haiti was spent on equipment and materials.'

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