Corruption Remains Widespread in Morocco Despite Anti-Graft Efforts

"Corruption in Morocco has become endemic for years. It affects all economic and administrative sectors, public and private," says Ahmed Bernoussi, Secretary General of Transparency Maroc, in an interview with Challenge. To support his words, he relies on the corruption perception indices published by Transparency International for more than 20 years and the recent surveys conducted by the National Authority for Integrity, Prevention and the Fight against Corruption (INPPLC). "The health sector remains the most affected by corruption, followed by political parties, the government, parliament and trade unions," reveals the survey conducted in 2022 by the INPPLC among citizens.

According to this survey, "corruption is widespread in the fields of recruitment, appointments and career development in the public sector. It is also widespread in the fields of social assistance, the granting of licenses, approvals, exemptions and exceptional authorizations". It "affects one in four citizens among resident citizens." According to Bernoussi, the sectors most affected by these practices are the gendarmerie, transport, police, health in the public sector, justice, urban planning, housing and real estate in the private sector as well as the caids and pachaliks. Similarly, the survey of business leaders showed that "68% believe that corruption is widespread or very widespread in Morocco," he specifies.

The head of Transparency Maroc also points out that corruption costs Morocco between 3 and 5% of GDP, or nearly 50 billion dirhams, which translates into the deterioration of the quality of social services: public health, education..., according to World Bank estimates. Yet a national anti-corruption strategy was officially adopted in December 2015. Ten years later, "this strategy has been virtually frozen due to a lack of political will to implement it," Bernoussi observes. The national commission that should monitor its implementation has met 2 times in 8 years, while the decree creating it stipulated that it be convened at least 2 times a year.

Bernoussi said that the evaluation of its implementation by the INPPLC is mixed in its 2022 and 2023 reports. "However, 2018 saw the promulgation of Law 31-13 on the right of access to information. This is an implementation of Article 27 of the Constitution which stipulated this right. Unfortunately, this law contains several exceptions that have shown its limits in 7 years of practice," he explains. The promulgation of this law allowed Morocco to take a leap in the corruption perception index in 2018: Morocco had a score of 43/100 and ranked 73rd out of 180 countries. "But the freezing of the strategy has not failed to cause Morocco to regress annually in the corruption perception index," notes the head of Transparency Maroc, specifying that in 2023, the kingdom obtained a score of 38/100 and fell to 97th place worldwide, a annual decline of 1 point and 5 places in the global ranking.

The fight against corruption is hampered by the main resistances encountered, both at the intra-state level and throughout society, and in particular in the economic field. "The resistances at the intra-state level are manifested by the lack of coherence of actions between the different departments, particularly between the government and the control and good governance bodies. The reports of the latter are either ignored, or contested and denigrated: Competition Council, INPPLC, Court of Auditors..., Bernoussi further explains. While the citizen only aspires to enjoy his legitimate rights and access quality public services under good conditions, without being forced to ’overpay’ them in an ’informal’ way".