- Managers of National Financial Information Processing Units
(CENTIF) of the UEMOA are in Bamako to make the states general of the fight against money laundering
capital and the financing of terrorism, a decade after the creation of the CENTIFs. The opening of
three-day work took place on December 4, 2019, at the Salam hotel in Bamako. At the end of the work, the
participants will make recommendations to the authorities for capacity building
operational and functional CENTIFs.
The Minister of Social Cohesion, Peace and National Reconciliation, Lassine BOUARE, in
presence of his Security and Social Protection counterpart, Salif TRAORE, on behalf of Prime Minister
Minister, kicked off the work of the Estates General on the fight against money laundering
capital and the financing of terrorism. We also noted at this meeting the presence of the President of the
CENTIF Mali, former minister Marimpa SAMOURA in the presence of the president of the networks for the fight against
WAEMU laundering.
The purpose of these states general is to take stock of the fight against money laundering and
financing of terrorism in the WAEMU area and to make relevant recommendations to
the place of UEMOA government and community authorities, for the strengthening of
operational and functional capacities of the CENTIFs, explained Marimpa SAMOURA.
Specifically, it is, according to him, to present the results obtained by the CENTIF in the fight
against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, both nationally and internationally
(raising awareness and training of those subject to the law and of the main players in the fight, reception and processing of
files, creation of databases, convictions pronounced, seizures, signature of agreements of
cooperation in the exchange of information); to note the difficulties encountered by the CENTIFs in the
framework of the accomplishment of their missions and formulate proposed solutions; formulate
proposals for strengthening the operational and functional capacities of CENTIFs; identify
measures aimed at improving the AML/CFT environment in relation to the new
regulatory framework (Directive 02/2015/CM/ /UEMOA of July 2, 2015, relating to the fight against
money laundering and terrorist financing in WAMU Member States); to raise awareness
public authorities on the challenges of the second round of GIABA Mutual Evaluations and the risks of
non-compliance and non-effectiveness in the international context governed by FATF requirements.
In accordance with the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the national mechanisms for combating
against money laundering and the financing of terrorism by WAEMU Member States have
the object of mutual evaluation by the experts of the Intergovernmental Action Group against Money Laundering
in West Africa (GIABA) and the World Bank from 2008 to 2012. The results from this
mutual evaluation process have highlighted shortcomings that reduce the capacity for action
actors involved in the fight against financial crime, in particular the CENTIF whose mission is
mainly, the processing and transmission of information, with a view to the fight against money laundering
capital and the financing of terrorism, noted the president of the money laundering networks of
the WAEMU space.
He indicated that the shortcomings noted at the level of the CENTIFs are linked, among other things, to the absence of a
real financial autonomy, the inadequacy of the resources allocated to meet all their
activities, the unsuitability of the organizational framework, the non-existence of a regional system of exchange and
sharing of information, the weakness of the effective mechanism for processing Declarations of Operations

Suspicious (DOS), the insufficiency/absence of interconnection between the CENTIFs and the other AML/CFT stakeholders. Despite these weaknesses, he pointed out that more than ten years after their creation, the CENTIFs have managed to obtain appreciable results. Thus, the awareness and training campaigns carried out in the various States have encouraged the support of the majority of liable people to promote frank cooperation by systematically filing suspicious transaction reports as soon as atypical transactions are observed. In addition, the CENTIFs have contributed through their investigative activities to the reduction of the financing capacities of terrorist organizations whose actions constitute real threats to the economic, social and political stability of our sub-region. At the international level, the cooperation developed by the CENTIFs has led to the signing of several information exchange agreements with several financial intelligence units around the world. This cooperation constitutes an effective platform for supporting investigations in the context of the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, particularly with regard to the transnational nature of these scourges. In this international field, however, CENTIFs are criticized for not having effective and operational means to process in a diligent and secure manner the requests referred to them. However, speed is an essential vector in terms of effectiveness in the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. In addition, many challenges remain to be met in order to have CENTIFs whose operational capacities allow a diligent and effective reaction against the phenomena of money laundering and terrorist financing. This is why the president of the CNTIF networks wanted the government of Mali to plead with the President of the Republic to be the voice of the CENTIFs with his counterparts in the sub-region.

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