The Council of Ministers met this Tuesday, December 19, 2017 at the Palace of the Presidency of the Republic under the presidency of the President of the Republic, His Excellency, Faure Essozimna GNASSINGBE. The council has: - adopted two (2) bills; - adopted two (2) decrees and examined at first reading a draft decree; - and listened to two (2) communications.
Under the draft laws
The first bill passed by the council is related to the law for the regulation of the state budget for the year 2015.
The finance law for the year 2015 was drawn up in an economic context and mixed financial, marked by a fragile global economic activity. This situation has remained the same in advanced countries as in emerging and developing countries.
It is in this sensitive economic context that the Togolese government has set about achieving the objectives set out in the document "Accelerated Growth and Employment Promotion Strategy" (SCAPE), broken down into an Action Plan. Priority (PAP).
As the main instrument for implementing the government's economic policy, the 2015 Finance Management Act focused on the continuation of the dynamic consolidation of economic growth through a sustained mobilization of resources, both internal and external, and a better orientation of public spending in general and in particular that which gradually takes into account the axes of the SCAPE. This exercise, which is the fourth of its kind, demonstrates the commitment to transparency and good governance that the President of the Republic wants to see applied in the management of public finances.
The second billadopted by the Council relates to the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing in the member states of the West African Monetary Union (WAMU).
In the 2000s, WAMU Member States adopted a legal and organizational mechanism to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorism, which mechanisms should strengthen measures to protect the the integrity and reputation of the Union's financial system, contained in the legal texts governing banking and financial transactions. Actions at Community level have led to the adoption by the Council of Ministers of the Union of the main legal instruments and their transposition into the Togolese corpus.
Following the revision of the recommendations of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), relating to the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism, which occurred on February 15, 2012, it appeared essential to review the relevant legal texts. in WAMU Member States.
The aim of this reform is:
- to bring the legal texts in force in the Union into line with the new international standards issued by the FATF;
- fill in the gaps in the current system, identified during the mutual evaluation exercises organized by the Intergovernmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA);
- taking into account, in particular, the concerns gathered from the stakeholders concerned, when identifying the difficulties of implementation of the texts in force, carried out in 2012 by the BCEAO, as well as during the validation workshop of the 10 and September 11, 2014.
The present bill amalgamates the Uniform Anti-Money Laundering Law with that relating to the fight against the financing of terrorism. In particular, it aims to facilitate the exploitation of these laws, several of which are complementary or even identical. They also incorporate innovations that make the body of law more effective. The criminal aspects of the old texts are now included in our penal code.
Under the decrees
The first decree adopted by the Council of Ministers fixes the territorial jurisdiction and the chief town of the communes of the Plateaux, Centrale, and Kara regions.
Following the adoption by the Government on 11 March 2016 of the road map and after the holding of the national workshop on decentralization and the first meeting of the National Council for Monitoring Decentralization, the Assembly adopted on 23 June 2017 the law establishing the municipalities. In accordance with the provisions of Article 2 of the said law, the territorial jurisdiction and the administrative center of the communes thus created must be fixed by decree in the Council of Ministers.
Thus, it is a question of fixing the geographical extent on which the competences of each commune are exerted. The creation of the communes having been made by grouping of cantons, it will be necessary to specify for each of them the cantons on which the commune exercises its competences. It should be remembered that by combining the sociological, historical, demographic, geographical and economic criteria, it has been decided that each prefecture should have at least two (2) communes, each regional capital four (4) communes, the others large prefectures (besides the chief town of region) four (4) communes and prefectures of average size three (3) communes. The result is a national average of about three (3) cantons per municipality.
As regards the capital of these communes, it should be noted that the communes comprising the chief towns of prefecture keep as chief town, that of the prefecture. The communes covering only one canton keep the chief town of this canton as chief town.
This decree strengthens the process initiated by the government on the initiative of the President of the Republic in terms of decentralization.
The second decree adopted by the Board amends Decree No. 2014-119 / PR of 19 May 2014 and determines the form of the articles of association and the share capital for limited liability companies (SARL).
Seizing the possibility offered by Article 311 of the Revised Uniform Act, the Togolese Government in its policy to improve the business climate took in 2014 "Decree No. 2014-119 / PR determining the form of the statutes and social capital for limited liability companies ". This text offered the possibility of creating an SARL in Togo on the basis of the articles of association and a minimum capital of 100,000 CFA francs divided into equal shares with a nominal value of 5,000 CFA francs (Article 3 and 4 of the decree).
With the aim and aim of continuing to improve the business climate and make the country more attractive by extending these measures to all social categories without exclusion, it has been suggested that further measures to encourage creation of commercial enterprises capable of generating wealth, jobs and a more active economic life.
Thus, the present decree institutes the liberalization of the minimum social capital of SARLs, implying the modification of articles 3 and 4 of the decree of 2014. From now on, the amount of the social capital for the constitution of the company with limited liability is freely determined by the partners and fixed in the statutes. In addition, the share capital is divided into equal shares whose nominal value is freely determined by the articles of association. This is a significant step forward for the private sector, which should be boosted.
Finally, the council examined in first reading the draft decreeon the integration of the National Institute of Youth and Sport at the University of Lomé. Under Communications The first communication presented by the Minister of Technical Education and Vocational Training relates to the accession of Togo to the African Alliance for the Development of Vocational Training. Following one of the recommendations from a seminar on "Triangular Cooperation in the Service of South-South Partnership", organized in May 2016, fifteen (15) African countries including Togo, represented by their ministers in charge of vocational training , signed on April 18, 2017 in Morocco a multilateral framework agreement of partnership which gave rise to the "African Alliance for the Development of Vocational Training".
Based on a shared belief about the importance of active triangular partnerships, the Alliance will build vocational training systems that will ensure young people's professional integration to match their ambitions. It also lays the foundation for a solidarity partnership based on the significant potential and capacity of our countries; the complementarity of resources, with mutual respect among equal partners, through the development of adapted vocational training strategies; the development of "Integrated Programs of Cooperation" and restructuring around flagship projects.
The Alliance will be led by an Executive Committee, composed of one representative per partner country and a representative of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB). The presidency will be held by Morocco for the first term and the general secretariat will be based in Morocco.
The second communication presented to the Council by the Minister of Higher Education and Research, relates to the West African Center for Scientific Service on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL).
The West African Science Service Center on Climate Change and Adapted Land Use (WASCAL) is a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research institution that aims to inform policy at both regional and national levels on climate change issues. . The goal of the program is to identify resilient and adaptive land use systems to conserve or restore functional ecosystems for sustainable human development.
Specifically, it aims to improve climate change research infrastructures in West Africa, explore scenarios and scientific options for developing the resilience of the socio-ecological systems of current and future generations, assist decision-makers in sound choices of climate change Land use methods that provide ecosystem services and goods to local communities and provide knowledge to scientists and policy makers on the issue of climate change.
The program brings together ten (10) West African countries, all members of ECOWAS: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo . The other five (5) ECOWAS member countries are gradually integrating WASCAL, notably Guinea Bissau and Cape Verde, which have just signed a memorandum of understanding.
Done at Lomé on 19 December 2017
The Council of Ministers
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