Marrakech Mayor Faces Backlash Over Lavish Spending After Criticizing Predecessor

Elected under the banner of the Party of Justice and Development (PJD), Mohamed Larbi Belcaid had cried scandal, accusing his predecessor of having emptied the coffers of the municipality before his departure. However, according to Al Akhbar, the former Mayor, Fatima-Zahra Mansouri, had never used the municipal car and had always traveled in her personal car.

According to the daily, the current Mayor had positioned himself as a defender of the protection of public funds, before showing his true face by offering himself, at the expense of the taxpayer, a luxury car worth 390,000 dirhams. And, as if that were not enough, he embarked on the renovation of his office with Italian marble and precious wood, at a cost of 400,000 dirhams, as well as the renewal of that of his Chief of Staff.

These works, described as superfluous, mobilized a heavy budget just to redo the marble tiling, to cover the walls in precious wood and to renew the entire air conditioning system. The newspaper does not understand why the Mayor is affording so much luxury, while citizens are trapped every day by speed bumps on the roads, and proper street lighting is lacking.

The authority in question, since his election, has multiplied management errors. The newspaper points out that Larbi Belcaid has signed a contract of 1.1 million dirhams with a company for the redevelopment of the basement of the town hall. He is about to conclude another transaction for the construction of a building for the filing of archives.

Sources cited within the Town Hall denounce, according to the newspaper, a squandering of the municipality’s funds, which denotes the failure of the Mayor in the management of a city that needs all its financial resources to develop.