Softcare case: The president of the Pastef parliamentary group points to the ineffectiveness of the laws and the flaws in the oversight

Before the National Assembly on Friday, October 2, during the examination of the report of the parliamentary fact-finding mission on the marketing of Softcare brand products in Senegal, the deputy, who is also president of the Pastef/Les Patriotes parliamentary group, Mohamed Ayib Salim Daffé, emphasized the need to strengthen control, inspection and monitoring mechanisms to guarantee the effective application of laws.

According to him, the main issue raised by the Softcare case went beyond the specific case of this company. "The most important problem we identified is a problem of the law's effectiveness more generally. Passing a law is not enough to guarantee its application. Effective mechanisms for control, monitoring, inspection, and follow-up must be put in place. We pass laws. But in order for them to be applied, we need control, we need monitoring, we need inspection, we need follow-up," he emphasized.

Mohamed Ayib Daffé maintained that the mission's report highlighted several difficulties, particularly legal and financial ones, as well as issues related to political will and transparency. He especially emphasized the problems of coordination between the various ministries and state structures.

"This mission does not have the prerogative to judge any party."

“There are also problems with intersectoral coordination, that is, between the different ministries and between the different structures. These difficulties can also be observed within some administrations themselves, where the structures meant to work together do not always function in a sufficiently coordinated manner. The State must take into account the recommendations made by the parliamentary fact-finding mission and work towards their implementation in conjunction with the National Assembly,” he stated.

Further on, the MP also highlights the limitations of the fact-finding mission regarding expert assessments.

He explained that the National Assembly did not have its own laboratory and that the mission had been unable to conduct an analysis of the raw material in question due to its absence. He also reiterated that the mission's mandate was not to judge the various parties involved.

"This mission does not have the prerogative to judge any party. Investigations were carried out and the report was very clear," he said.

He argued that the report's recommendations should lead to further investigations and the correction of identified shortcomings.

"What we recommend to further our research, these investigations, this report, is to move to a parliamentary inquiry mission, which will allow us to highlight all the shortcomings and correct them for the benefit of the Senegalese people," he said.