Moroccan Auditors Slam Transport Ministry for Excessive Spending and Poor Oversight

Too many spending gaps (overcharging) at the Ministry of Equipment, Transport, Logistics and Water, as revealed by the 2018 Annual Report of the Moroccan Court of Auditors.

"The Ministry does not have a clear policy or written measures defining the responsibilities and qualitative and quantitative annual objectives for rationalizing spending at the administrative level," the Report states.

Similarly, the Court of Auditors made numerous observations on the overestimation of prices in the purchase orders of the Ministry.

It apparently bought storage peripherals, "32 GB Kingston USB", for 720 MAD per unit when the devices are sold on the market for a maximum of 200 MAD. The other case of overcharging concerns the purchase of the "HP Laserjet CP52255 color toner" at a unit price of 16,800 MAD instead of 2,000 MAD, the market price.

In its response, the Ministry said that "the prices indicated in the purchase order were specially adopted after consulting three suppliers".

As for the "32 GB Kingston USB" storage peripherals, it explained that the price paid, estimated at 720 MAD (600 MAD tax-free), is "the price of a high-quality metal-unbreakable storage memory, not that of normal storage memories with a limited lifespan."