Controversy Erupts Over Exclusive Use of Casablanca’s Public Parking Garage by Officials

"The 170 spaces on a single level of the underground parking lot of Place Mohammed V in Casablanca would have been squatted, without compensation, by elected officials and civil servants of the municipality," reveals Assabah, specifying that "this decision would have been made by certain parties at the wilaya and the municipality, who have tasked two employees with supervising access to this infrastructure, prohibiting the public from accessing it."

Sources from the daily newspaper explain that this decision would have been made after "remarks from the wali of the region on the disorders caused by the anarchic parking on the roads, in the vicinity of the wilaya and the headquarters of the City Council, Avenue Hassan II." While the measure has helped to resolve the situation of anarchy that prevailed in front of the headquarters of the wilaya, it has, on the other hand, created significant losses for the municipality, estimated at more than one million dirhams.

According to the same sources, "the urban municipality of Casablanca had not managed to convince its elected officials and civil servants to use the third floor of the Rachidi Square parking lot, with a capacity of 720 spaces, in exchange for a monthly subscription of 100 dirhams." Yet, this proposed approach aimed to generate revenue for the city by operating the two parking lots and to reduce the influx into the underground parking lot of Place Mohammed V.

"This decision to make parking free for elected officials and civil servants of the urban municipality places the entire infrastructure in a dead end," notes the daily, which observes that "the municipality will be obliged to find revenue to ensure the proper functioning of this infrastructure, including the necessary maintenance of its elevators, its surveillance cameras, its computer system and its other facilities, in addition to the payment of salaries to its employees."