- Difficulties in accessing the mining cadastre online
- Lack of proof of work submitted, as well as related expenses, prior to the granting of exploration permits
- Non-application of sanctions provided for by the Mining Code
- Failure to fully recover revenues from exploration permits
- The legal processing time for granting research permits is not respected
- Lack of adequate human, financial and material resources
Burkina Faso’s subsoil attracts many national and foreign investors. The high number of valid gold exploration permits in 2020 is a good indicator. Indeed, out of 433 research permits already issued, 361 have been granted between 2017 and 2020.
The Court of Auditors in its sovereign role has carried out a compliance audit of the management of gold exploration permits in Burkina Faso (March 2022). This control is part of its control programme for the judicial year 2020-2021. It is also in accordance with the provisions of the organic law n°014-2000/AN of 16 May 2000 on the composition, attributions, organisation, functioning of the Court of Auditors and procedure applicable before it. This control made it possible to assess the extent to which the Ministry of Mines and the Ministry of Finance exercised their respective powers in accordance with the regulations in force over the period 2017-2020.
At the level of the Ministry of Mines, the audit assessed the procedures for granting, renewing and transferring mining research permits in accordance with the regulations in force.
The audit report reveals numerous irregularities
What are the results of the audit?
The audit revealed numerous difficulties and shortcomings.
These include the absence of the required documents in the application files for gold mining permits, the lack of proof of examination of the nature and consistency of the work presented in the research programme and the related expenditure budget before the research permits are granted, and the inaccessibility of the Electronic Mining Cadastre Plus (EMC+) software. It should be recalled that this software puts all permits and authorisations in Burkina Faso online.
With regard to the monitoring of research permits granted and the control of the execution of planned works, the work has revealed the non-updating of the topographic map in the national geodetic system, the non-application of the sanctions provided for by the Mining Code in the event of non-submission of activity reports by research permit holders, and the failure to respect the legal time limits for processing the granting of research permits. According to the law, an application for the renewal of a research permit is decided within a maximum of 60 days from the date of submission of the application; after this period, the renewal is considered to be granted.
The Court of Auditors noted delays of between 9 and 200 days in granting research permits.
At the end of its work, the Court of Auditors made recommendations. These include the permanent availability of the EMC+ software, the monitoring of the continuous updating of the topographic map in the national geodesic system.
The audit report also recommends the availability of adequate human, financial and material resources for the competent structures for the execution of monitoring, control and recovery missions and the full recovery of revenues from research permits.
Limitations and difficulties revealed by the compliance audit
According to the report of the Court of Auditors, the difficulties of a budgetary, calendar and security nature that obliged the Court to focus on three regions, namely the Boucle du Mouhoun, the Hauts-Bassins and the South-West; regions not affected by insecurity.
This difficulty was compounded by the impossibility of visiting the 60 research sites selected in the sample due to their inaccessibility during the winter season, as well as the unavailability of some of the selected stakeholders. Despite these limitations, the Court was able to carry out the audit of the management of the gold mining permits.
Rachid Ouedraogo
#Mines_Actu_Burkina
