The Court of Auditors presented, during a press conference on Thursday, April 3, 2025, in Ouagadougou, its performance audit report on the mobilization of duties and taxes resulting from the extractive activity of gold, zinc, silver and manganese over the period 2017 to 2022 in Burkina Faso.

Combating illicit financial flows is a national concern. Burkina Faso lost around 274.59 billion CFA francs between 2012 and 2021, according to the 2024 report of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI). And the mining sector is one of the most affected. To understand the situation, the Court of Auditors conducted an audit on the performance of the legislative and institutional frameworks governing the sector over the period 2017 to 2022. The results of this audit were presented to the press on 3 April 2025 in Ouagadougou

The audit involved 18 structures, 9 sites visited and 93 people interviewed. “These were the structures in charge of the governance of the mining sector, the collection of duties and taxes and the fight against fraud and money laundering,” said the head of the audit team, Sarah Bazié. It focused on the legal framework, institutional and operational capacities and the analysis of duties and taxes. According to Ms. Bazié, it emerged that the system for issuing and renewing permits is not very

“Out of 192 fraud cases submitted to the economic pool, 7 were judged”, noted Sarah Bazié. In terms of duties and taxes, “we noted the late collection of royalties, the failure to control the periods of gold refining and its delivery to the owner company, the payment of the priority dividend to the State by most companies, the application of penalties and fiscal fines sanctioning offenses”, added the head of the audit team

and to continue that no formal notice, withdrawal of title or authorization and legal proceedings have been taken. For an effective fight against Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) in the mining sector, the audit team recommended the development of national expertise, the strengthening of monitoring, surveillance and increased accountability of actors, the rationalization of fiscal expenditure, the strengthening of international cooperation in the fight against IFFs and the establishment of a national gold reserve