President of Republic Receives Accounts Court’s Annual Report for 2018

His Excellency the President of the Republic, Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, received, Tuesday morning at the Presidential Palace in Nouakchott, the annual report of the Court of Accounts concerning the year 2018.

The report was delivered by the president of the court, Mr. Seyidna Ali Ould El Jeilani, during a meeting with the President of the Republic.

Soon after the meeting, the president of the Accounts Court made a statement to the Mauritanian news agency (AMI), in which he said he had the honor to be received by His Excellency the President of the Republic, Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.
He added that the meeting was an opportunity to deliver His Excellency the annual report of the Accounts Court concerning the year 2018, in implementation of Article 68 of the Organic law No. 032-2018 issued on 20 July 2018 relating to the Accounts Court, which states in its second paragraph that “The annual report of the court shall be delivered to the President of the Republic by the President of the Court of Accounts before the end of the fiscal year following the management year concerned”.

The report included the main observations and recommendations resulting from the control tasks carried out by the Court of Accounts, within the framework of the tasks assigned to the court under Article 68 of the Constitution of 20 July 1991, which states that “the Accounts Court is the independent supreme body charged with controlling public funds”.

He explained that the most important objectives that are sought to be achieved by the Court of Accounts in the field of control, audit, and evaluation, include:

– protecting public funds
– improving management methods and techniques
– detecting any deviation, negligence, breach, or violation of the legal and management rules, so that in each case, the necessary corrections can be made, the concerned persons are held accountable, compensation is obtained, or measures are taken to avoid the reoccurrence of such actions or their commission is made more difficult in the future.

As for the assistance it provides to parliament, Mr. Seyidna Ali Ould El Jeilani pointed out that the Court of Accounts has placed five of its members, in 2020, at the disposal of the parliamentary committee charged with investigating specific incidents. They prepared and completed a report on those facts, which formed the backbone of the work of this committee, and which was incorporated into its annual report.

He stressed that corruption is a criminal act and a betrayal of trust that impedes economic and social development, so all Mauritanians, with the same will with which they face the COVID-19 pandemic, have to redouble efforts to address corruption and eliminate it.

He concluded by expressing his happiness at meeting with the President of the Republic, adding that he had felt His Excellency’s sincere will to fight corruption, protect public funds, improve management, and rationalize public resources.