Madar (Nouakchott) - Mauritania's Council of Ministers, meeting on Wednesday, November 4, 2026, under President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, adopted a draft decree implementing Law No. 2026-026 of June 10, 2026, on the public procurement code, according to the cabinet communique published by the Mauritanian News Agency.
The decree creates a public procurement regulatory authority, a procurement oversight commission and procurement committees, introduces a regular qualification system for officials and performance monitoring, and requires those involved in public procurement to declare their assets and interests to reduce corruption risks, with procedures to be gradually digitised.
The text also creates a final settlement file for contracts to verify that services and works were properly delivered, shortens deadlines at every stage of the procurement process and promotes national preference and access for domestic companies to public contracts.
The cabinet also adopted a draft decree amending the customs statute, replacing the titles "brigadier inspector" and "brigadier" with "inspector general" and "inspector" to distinguish between services, and a draft decree setting a unified statute for higher-education teaching and research staff that brings researchers at the IMROP fisheries research institute into a harmonised framework.
The cabinet appointed a chairman of the board of the Mauritanian Hydrocarbons Company and chairmen and members of the boards of the Mauritanian Maritime Affairs Agency and the National Public Works Laboratory, without the communique naming them.
Prime Minister Mokhtar Ould Djay briefed the cabinet on the main lines of the government's general policy statement he intends to present to the National Assembly under Article 42 of the constitution, while the foreign minister reported on the international situation and the interior minister on the domestic situation. It comes on the eve of the president's launch of the second phase of the Nouakchott development programme.
