Mauritius prepares to replace the FCC with a National Crime Agency (NCA)

Mauritius is preparing to abolish the Financial Crimes Commission (FCC) and replace it with a National Crime Agency (NCA) after Parliament resumes on 20 October.

Cabinet has approved a package of nine bills for introduction in the National Assembly, including

1. Constitution (Amendment) Bill

2. National Crime Agency Bill

3. National Crime (Interim) Agency Bill

4. Secretariat of the Independent Advisory Panel Bill

5. Secretariat of the Independent Advisory (Interim) Panel Bill

6. Financial Crime Bill

7. Asset Recovery and Unexplained Wealth Bill

8. National Crime Agency (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill

9. Criminal Justice (Offenders Assisting Investigations and Prosecutions) Bill

The FCC Act is also to be repealed as a consequence of that package

The National Assembly sat on 1 September and then adjourned to 20 October.

The government had hoped to give the NCA Bill a first reading that day so MPs would have weeks to study a long text. The draft was not ready, so the first reading did not take place.

A wider mandate than the FCC

The FCC was established under the Financial Crimes Commission Act 2023, proclaimed on 29 March 2024, as the apex agency for

• Detecting, investigating and prosecuting financial crime.

It absorbed the Independent Commission Against Corruption, the Asset Recovery Investigation Division and the Integrity Reporting Services Agency.

Titrudeo Sanjay Dawoodarry, who had been acting since December 2024, was confirmed as Director-General on 12 June 2026.

The NCA is intended to go further.

Official briefings and Cabinet reporting describe it as the country’s lead investigative body for financial crime, cybercrime, and serious, complex, and organised crime: corruption, fraud, money laundering, online scams, organised networks, and the financial circuits that fund drug trafficking.

• It is to recover criminal assets, gather intelligence and co-operate with foreign agencies.

• It would also be able to take over relevant police investigations that fall within its remit.

The model is openly British. Prime Minister Navin Ramgoolam has previously said the reform would introduce the biggest change in law enforcement since the colonial period.

British NCA specialists have already worked with the Attorney General’s Office on the design. Local reporting also draws a comparison with the historical FBI.

How the transition is meant to work

According to L’Express sources at Government House, the handover after 20 October would sit under interim legislation.

A Director-General would be appointed by the President after consultation with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

• “At this stage, nothing is certain about the identity of the DG. There are no plans for the FCC Director-General to make the transition because the NCA is intended to go beyond what the FCC does,” one source said.

The interim Director-General would be able, for a limited period, to recruit civil servants with the Secretary to the Cabinet and the Head of the Civil Service, in order to set structures and conditions of service.

Planned divisions include anti-money-laundering and corruption, cybercrime, complex and organised crime, asset recovery, intelligence, legal affairs and prevention.

Oversight would include an

• Independent Advisory Panel to review certain decisions,

• A Senior Leadership Board to co-ordinate operations, and

• A Data Controller for confidential intelligence and intercept material.

A protocol is to govern work with the police, prosecutors, other investigative agencies and ministries. The draft also provides for a harmonised telecommunications interception regime and the integration of rules on cybersecurity, drugs, human trafficking, gambling, and terrorism.

Officials say the first concern is that live FCC files must not be disrupted and that the legal framework must let the new agency “hit the ground running”. Some FCC investigators say the picture remains unclear and that they are awaiting the parliamentary debate.

Where the reports do not fully agree

RFI reports that the NCA would not itself be a police force:

• It would have neither arrest nor prosecution powers, which would remain with existing services, while the Director of Public Prosecutions would keep the decision to prosecute.

That qualifier does not appear in the same terms in the 14 September L’Express briefing. Until the bills are published, the exact split of powers is not settled in public law.

L’Express has also warned that a new organogram will not, by itself, produce an independent agency if old political habits survive.

• The tests that remain are the security of the Director-General’s tenure, judicial control of intrusive powers, continuity of current investigations, and whether prosecutorial authority stays with the DPP.

Sources

• https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/202609130009.html

• https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/202609040594.html

• https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/202609070201.html

• https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/202609030322.html

• https://fr.allafrica.com/stories/202606120720.html

• https://www.rfi.fr/fr/afrique/20260908-maurice-le-gouvernement-veut-créer-une-nouvelle-agence-nationale-pour-lutter-contre-la-criminalité

• https://newsmoris.com/mauritius-considers-9-bills-for-british-style-national-crime-agency-model/

• https://lexpress.mu/s/neuf-decisions-cles-de-la-national-crime-agency-a-lagoa-562244

• https://lexpress.mu/node/551656

• https://lexpress.mu/s/nous-posons-les-fondations-dune-veritable-guerre-contre-les-crimes-financiers-547397

• https://fcc.mu/about-the-fcc/

• https://fcc.mu/management-team/

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_Crimes_Commission_(Mauritius)

• https://lexpress.mu/s/de-la-fcc-a-la-national-crime-agency-562547