The Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Keeper of the Seals Mohamed Sida Dicko presided over the opening ceremony of the Training Workshop for Notaries in the Fight against Money Laundering and the Financing of Terrorism. It was Tuesday, November 24, 2020, at the Millenium Hotel.
After welcoming the audience, the representative of the President of the National Financial Information Processing Unit (CENTIF), Mrs. Touré Aminata Dembélé recalled that notaries are part of the large category of persons subject to the law called designated non-financial companies and professions (or EPNFUD), constitute a privileged link in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing (AML/CFT) in Mali.
She then stressed that notaries just lacked prior training to help them understand the content of the legislation in this area. Before recalling that it was clear for the notaries and the actors of this fight, the main thing was: “to take the first steps towards each other; to organize this kind of forum of “giving and receiving”; to exchange in a convivial and transparent manner”, in order to be able to weave fruitful links, promising strong and sustained collaboration.
For the President of the Ordre des Notaires, Me Yacouba Massaman Kéita, it is after requests made in writing and reiterated verbally during several meetings at the CENTIF office, that she decided to organize this training workshop. According to him, at the end of this workshop, the participants will be sufficiently armed for a judicious application of the Law of 17 March 2007 on the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing, making the notary a person subject to the law.
This Law is an instrument in the hands of the actors in charge of both the information and the legal proceedings to which it may give rise. However, an effective fight against Terrorism and related offences necessarily requires a synergy of actions by stakeholders at different levels.
According to him: “it would allow an improvement of Mali’s score during the next evaluations by clear and reassuring answers to certain questions that will be asked during this workshop”.
Minister Dicko, during his speech, recalled that Mali, like the countries of the Sahel, is faced with the rise and persistence of phenomena related to terrorism and other forms of transnational organized crime.
