Government spokesperson: More than 2,700 Workers in Somelec and Public Media have been regularized under the Instructions of the President of the Republic

Minister of Culture, Arts, Communication and Relations with Parliament, Spokesperson of the Government, Hossein Ould Medou, said that the Council of Ministers today was characterized by the adoption of major social projects for workers, such as the regularization of the status of more than 2,700 workers in Somelec and public media institutions, as well as the creation of a support fund for teachers’ housing.

Commenting on the results of the meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday evening at the speech room at the headquarters of the Mauritanian News Agency in Nouakchott, he added, along with  the Ministers of: Education and Reform of the Educational System, Public Service and Labor, Energy and Petroleum, and the delegate in charge of the promotion of decentralization and local development, added that the Council approved the regularization of the status of collaborators in public media institutions (the Mauritanian News Agency, Radio Mauritania, Mauritanian Television and the Radio and Television Broadcasting Company), as well as non-permanent workers in the National Electricity Company (Somelec).

The Minister of Culture, Arts, Communication and Relations with Parliament stressed that the resolution of the issue of non-permanent workers in these institutions, caused by several reasons, including structural ones, is due to the historic decision taken by His Excellency the President of the Republic, Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh Ghazwani, during the last electoral campaign to resolve this issue, which has plagued workers and institutions for three decades.

He explained the stages that the settlement issue went through, starting with the instructions issued by the President of the Republic, followed by the government’s work to materialize them by forming a technical committee that includes all relevant government sectors, and ending with the updating and screening of the lists.

After several months of work, the committee submitted last week a report to the ministerial committee headed by Prime Minister Mokhtar Ould Diay, which recommended moving forward to complete the settlement and choose the most appropriate legal formula for it, he said, adding that the committee counted 1865 workers in official media institutions, and its work is expected to be completed within a week.

Commenting on the statement on the teachers’ housing fund, the Minister of Education and Reform of the Education System, Mrs. Huda Babaah, said that the statement approved a mechanism to benefit from this qualitative and unprecedented step in the history of teachers, as it will allow 1000 teachers to benefit every year during the first three years of the project (the first phase), in addition to the automatic benefit of retired teachers in these years.

She emphasized that the teacher benefiting from the housing (who graduated from the TeShe pointed out that the creation of a housing fund for teachers to provide 2,500 houses comes in implementation of what His Excellency the President of the Republic announced in his electoral program “My Ambition for the Nation”, in addition to what has been achieved for teachers in recent years: recruiting several thousand teachers, doubling their allowances, building thousands of classrooms, holding consultation days, and establishing a legal reference for the republican school.

Commenting on the draft decree, which repeals and replaces the 2014 decree on determining the representation of trade union organizations, the Minister of Public Service and Labor, Mohamed Ould Essewedat, explained that it aims to set criteria for the representation of workers in a more precise manner and proposes a mechanism for elections at the level of the public service, noting that the previous law did not allow for such criteria to be set.acher Training School this year) will pay only 25% of the housing costs over 15 years, while

the state will bear the rest (75%), adding that the committee in charge of the issue required 15 years of experience in carrying the chalk for non-field teachers, and will set clear criteria for the rest of the other categories of field teachers.

He added that the draft decree is an initiative that expresses a sincere will to establish a stricter mechanism for the representation of workers, and is in line with the vision of the President of the Republic, Mr. Mohamed Ould Cheikh Ghazouani, in this regard.

For his part, the Minister of Energy and Petroleum, Mohamed Ould Khaled, said that the statement on the final settlement of the status of non-permanent workers at the Mauritanian Electricity Company, Somalilk, includes the settlement of the status of 868 workers out of 995, highlighting that the audit carried out by the committee in charge of the subject showed that the remaining category either did not exist or did not meet the criteria.

He explained that the committee set three criteria that took into account seniority, educational level and the technical opinion of the company’s management, detailing the distribution of the 868 workers whose status was resolved, 55% of whom are located in the interior and 45% in Nouakchott.

The Minister praised this historic decision taken by His Excellency the President of the Republic to end the suffering of these workers, noting that the company cost the sum of 500 million old ouguiyas to solve this dilemma that lasted for more than two decades and all previous attempts to solve it failed.

Commenting on the statement on the acceleration of the decentralization and local development process, the Minister Delegate to the Minister of Interior, Promotion of Decentralization and Local Development in charge of decentralization and local development, Mr. Yacoub Salem Fall, said that it comes in implementation of the electoral program of His Excellency the President of the Republic “My Ambition for the Nation”, in which he stressed that decentralization is a strategic and irreversible choice.

For the first time in the history of municipalities (40 years), a clear plan for the work of these institutions has been developed, in addition to the establishment of a Higher Council for Decentralization headed by His Excellency the President of the Republic, in addition to his presidency presiding over the Decentralization Conference in which important decisions were taken in favor of mayors, such as granting them a work passport and providing them with health coverage.

He added that the creation of a new ministry in charge of decentralization adds to this program, in addition to strong indicators confirming the government’s pursuit of decentralization, such as the Nouakchott development program (more than 50 billion Ouguiyas), which came after wide consultation with local elected officials, as well as the regional program for access to basic services in the interior.