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Validation

Mauritania Validation 2020

Assessment of progress on meeting the EITI Standard

Mauritania was found to have made meaningful progress with improvements on 15 October 2020. The counry was assessed against the 2016 Standard for this Validation (see decision). 

Timeline of Validation and related materials

  • 21-23 January 2020: Stakeholder consultations through pre-Validation mission
  • 27 February 2020: Validation commenced

Secretariat assessment & comments

  • 08 July 2020 - Draft Secretariat assessment 
  • 25 August 2020 - Comments from the MSG  
  • 16 September 2020 - Final Secretariat assessment 

Validation Committee and Board review

  • 21 September 2020 - Representation from Mauritania EITI National Coordinator
  • 23 September 2020 - Discussion of Mauritania at Validation Committee meeting 
  • 30 September 2020 - VC recommendation to the Board, Board circular 297 / Board Paper 48-7-B
  • 15 October 2020 - Board decision 2020-76/BM-48, scorecard and corrective actions 

Background

This was a third Validation. On 27.02.2019, the EITI Board found that Mauritania had made meaningful progress with considerable improvements in implementing the EITI Standard (see Board decision). The Board established that progress in addressing three corrective actions would be assessed in a thrid Validation commencing 27 February 2020:

  1. In accordance with requirement 2.2.a, the government should ensure annual disclosure of which mining, oil, and gas licenses were awarded and transferred during the year, highlighting the technical and financial requirements and any non-trivial deviations from the applicable legal and regulatory framework governing license awards and transfers. In accordance with requirement 2.3, the government should also ensure that the dates of application, commodities covered and coordinates for all oil, gas and mining licenses held by material companies are publicly available.
     
  2. In accordance with Requirement 2.6, Mauritania should ensure that a comprehensive list of state participation in the extractive industries, including terms associated with state equity and any changes in the year under review, be publicly accessible. Mauritania should also clarify the rules and practices governing financial relations between all SOEs, and their subsidiaries, and the state, including the existence of any loans or guarantees extended by the state, or SOEs, to extractives companies or projects.
     
  3. In accordance with requirement 7.4, the MSG should undertake and document its efforts strengthen impacts of EITI implementation on extractive sector governance, specifically on increasing engagement with stakeholders at the local level and extending the detail and scope of EITI reporting. The MSG should develop specific approaches to engage stakeholders outside of the MSG in soliciting their views, developing APRs, and reviewing the impact of EITI implementation. The MSG may wish to consider developing more formalised consultation mechanisms with mine-affected communities through established regional focal points.

Mauritania was also assessed on requirement 2.5 (beneficial ownership) in accordance with the Board's decision.