The British NGO denounces several “violations of the law” in the allocation of fishing licenses by the Ministry of Maritime Economy.
According to the report of the national office against fraud and corruption (OFNAC), it has been noted, in some cases, the issuance by the Ministry of Fisheries and Maritime Economy of a letter of guarantee called “promise of fishing license” to vessels in the naturalization phase. “However, noted Greenpeace Africa, this practice is not provided for, either by the Maritime Fishing Code, or by a regulatory provision empowering the authority concerned to proceed in this way.
Furthermore, the non-governmental organization stressed that the allocation of the deep-sea demersal fishing license, option “trawlers, fishers and cephalopods” to boats, constitutes “a violation of the law” by the Ministry of Fisheries and Maritime Economy for the period 2014 – 2019. According to Greenpeace, which quoted OFNAC, this category of license does not yet exist.
In its report, OFNAC also noted other failures such as the withholding of decisions by the joint commission set up to rule on the follow-up to these licenses. According to the anti-graft body, the said commission did not wish to report the decisions to grant the licenses in question, and waited for them to expire before proceeding with the regularization by changing the option.
“These shortcomings raised by the OFNAC report reinforce the concerns of Greenpeace Africa, which for years has been calling for an audit and publication of the list of vessels authorized in Senegal,” said Dr. Aliou Ba.
The head of the Greenpeace Africa oceans campaign believes that “we must not let such an important sector sink into nebulous practices. This is why Greenpeace Africa calls once again on the State of Senegal to save the fishing sector.”
ARD/te/lb/abj/APA