King Mohammed VI’s Kénitra Development Plan Falls Short of Targets

The completion rate of several projects programmed within the framework of the strategic plan for the integrated and sustainable development of the province of Kénitra (2015-2020) and managed by the former president of the urban commune of Kénitra, Aziz Rebbah, and the former president of the provincial council, Jawad Gharib, is 60% while the completion of the work should be effective in 2020, notes the daily Al Akhbar. Another finding: other projects have been programmed "without cleaning up the necessary land base".

Launched by King Mohammed VI for 85 million dirhams, the construction work on the cultural complex is stagnating while the budget has increased from 85 million dirhams to 180 million dirhams. Questioned by a deputy of the National Rally of Independents (RNI) in Parliament, the Minister of Youth, Culture and Communication, Mohamed Mehdi Bensaid, said that this project is part of "a partnership between the urban commune of Kénitra and the council of the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra region". He will specify that the increase in the budget is explained by the fact that "the architectural and technical studies carried out in 2015, before the start of the work, had not grasped the cost of the realization, in addition to the high prices of certain materials".

Based on these less flattering findings, the General Inspectorate of the Ministry of the Interior is conducting an audit to determine the responsibilities in "the delays incurred, the cost overruns and the malfunctions observed".