Mauritania’s Implementation of Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Terrorist Financing Measures

Overview

The report assesses Mauritania’s compliance with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) recommendations on anti-money laundering and combating terrorist financing (AML/CFT) measures related to non-profit organizations (NPOs).

Key Findings

Number of NPOs and Risk Assessment

• Mauritania has 7,799 NPOs registered under the 1964 law for associations.
• The National Risk Assessment found that there are almost no threats posed by terrorist entities to NPOs.

Laws and Regulations

• Mauritania reviewed its laws and regulations related to NPOs and made amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Law No. 017-2019 and Decree 197-2019.
• The country is working with NPOs to develop best practices to prevent terrorist financing (TF) risks and vulnerabilities.

Mechanism for Periodic Review

• The National Risk Report recommended setting up a mechanism to periodically re-assess risks every 3 years, including the NPO sector.

Implementation of AML/CFT Measures

Supervision and Sanctions

• Commission on Human Rights, Humanitarian Action, and Relations with Civil Society is responsible for supervising NPOs and applying the Risk-Based Approach (RBA).
• Article 44 of Law 017-2019 provides for effective, proportionate, and dissuasive sanctions.

Shortcomings in Implementation

Lack of Information and Evidence

• There is no information on how terrorist actors abuse NPOs (Criterion 8.1 b).
• There is no evidence to prove the execution of outreach programs to raise and maintain awareness among NPOs (8.2 b), or working with NPOs to develop best practices to address TF risks (8.2 c).

Insufficient Supervision

• There is no evidence that RBA supervision over NPOs has been enhanced (Criterion 8.3).

No Mechanism for Immediate Exchange of Information

• There is no mechanism in place to ensure the immediate exchange of relevant information with competent authorities (Criterion 8.5 a).