Moroccan Interior Minister Launches Crackdown on Billion-Dirham Land Theft Scandal

This network would have dispossessed collective lands whose value amounts to billions of dirhams. The in-depth investigations will make it possible to discover all the people involved in this vast network. They will then be summoned. The files presenting a criminal character will be transferred to the justice system, according to Al Akhbar. As part of this dynamic, the General Directorate of Local Authorities (DGCT) has launched a large-scale operation to inventory, regularize and protect the municipal land heritage in all the major cities, including Rabat, Casablanca, Marrakech, Fez, Tangier, Salé, Kénitra, Témara and Benslimane.

This is a two-pronged approach. The first concerns land regularization. This involves registering untitled assets in the land register and gradually updating existing titles. The second relates to the digitalization of monitoring. This will only be possible thanks to a geographic information system called the "Cartographic Atlas", developed in partnership with the National Land Registry Agency. At the same time, the DGCT "has begun to reject several suspicious municipal deliberations relating to the transfer or rental of municipal property", in accordance with the new legal framework for municipal property, adopted at the beginning of the term of office.