Abdoulaye Pona’s mandate at the Chamber of Mines expires 7 years ago: Does the Minister of Mines not condone illegality?

2023-05-03 04:08:23

Abdoulaye Pona, MWC President

The Minister of Energy and Mines, Lamine Seydou Traoré has decided to turn a blind eye to cases of illegalities and violations of the texts at the Chamber of Mines.

The Chamber of Mines of Mali (CMM), is a consular institution created by law n°04-006 of January 14, 2004 which defines it as a public establishment of a professional nature endowed with legal personality and financial autonomy. It is placed under the supervision of the Ministry in charge of Mines. According to decree n° 2018-0656/P-RM of August 8, 2018
fixing its organization and operating methods, the Consular Assembly is the deliberative body of the Chamber of Mines. It is made up of 100 full members and 100 alternate members, all elected for 5 years. I say for 5 years.

After a well-filled 5-year term, the first president of the Institution gave way to Abdoulaye Pona in 2011, without trumpet or drum.

As stipulated in the texts, the mandate of the president of the MWC is 5 years. On February 24, 2016, President Pona’s mandate ended. The Minister of Mines at the time, after the end of the mandate of Mr. Pona, had extended it for six months because he had not convened the electoral college. The decree and the Minister’s Order, which allowed the extension of the mandate and also provided for a transitional college, were attacked by Mr. Pona before the Supreme Court which canceled them at the beginning of August 2016. For the Court, the texts were in the door – at odds with the law establishing the Chamber of Mines. Therefore Mr. Pona should remain at the head of the CMM until the setting up of the Review Committee which resulted in the adoption in 2018 of Decree No. 2018-0656/P-RM of August 8, 2018 setting the organization and operating methods of the Chamber of Mines. In other words, members of the Consular Assembly hoped that with the re-reading, the election of a new president would take place. Wasted effort !

Pona managed to put out the fire that was about to reach her. As a result, his opponents lurking in the shadows fell silent. We are in 2018, Abdoulaye Pona, after three years of excess time in his mandate, continued to occupy the chair of president of the MWC as if he had just renewed his mandate.

Meanwhile, his name is cited in unorthodox cases. The now illegal president manages to hang on until the coup d’etat where Seydou Lamine Traoré is appointed Minister of Energy and Mines. He developed strategies and everything suggests that he managed to put the powerful Minister of Mines in his game bag.

The latter since his appointment closes his eyes to the violation of the texts which establishes the CMM, which however are crystal clear. Indeed, Decree No. 2018-0656/P-RM of August 8, 2018 in its article 50 stipulates that “When the elections do not take place at the end of their term, the mandate of the Consular Assembly and the Bureau of the Chamber of Mines is extended by order of the supervising minister for a maximum period of six months. At the end of this period, if the election has still not taken place, a transitional college is established which acts as a Bureau
of the Chamber until the election of the members of the Consular Assembly. During this period, the powers of the deliberative organ of the Chamber of Mines are
transferred to the supervising minister”.

With this passage, the Minister Traoré is obliged to take his responsibilities and enforce the texts of the Republic of Mali. Or does he have a deal with Abdoulaye Pona?

On behalf of Mali kura advocated by the authorities of the transition, it is a duty for Minister Seydou Traoré to comply with the sacrosanct principles and demand the establishment of the transitional college in accordance with the texts.

Djibril Diallo

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