Home > Morocco > Moroccan Lawmakers Stall Bill on Mandatory Asset Disclosure
Moroccan Lawmakers Stall Bill on Mandatory Asset Disclosure
Sunday 29 September 2019, by
The bill on the mandatory declaration of assets was tabled by the Party of Justice and Development (PJD) since last May. But it is not yet scheduled in committee. Several parliamentary groups and political parties from the majority and the opposition are still opposed to its presentation, in order to avoid its adoption after debate.
The daily Al Massae notes the blockage that this bill, tabled since last May by the parliamentary group of the Party of Justice and Development (PJD) in the second Chamber, is experiencing.
However, this law has never crossed the stage of its scheduling for examination and adoption in plenary session. In the background, some parliamentary groups would have worked relentlessly to ensure that this bill is not scheduled for debate in committee.
And for good reason, the text indeed brings new coercive elements going as far as dismissing from their posts the ministers and senior officials who would not have submitted their declaration of assets within the time limits. On the grounds that this bill does not enjoy consensus, these parliamentary groups are asking for its presentation to be postponed.
For their part, its drafters note that the declaration of assets is a mechanism capable of strengthening the application of the principles of good governance and the correlation between responsibility and accountability.
For them, even if the declaration of assets has been in force for several years, the PJD’s bill hopes to frame this practice, while expanding the circle of those subject to it.
As a new contribution, the text tabled in the second Chamber by the PJD extends the obligation to declare assets to all civil servants, agents and contractors who are in the same conditions as the personalities who are already subject to it, the same source points out.
In addition, the text provides clarifications regarding the nature of the assets to be declared, which include the assets of spouses and children, as well as assets held abroad, the same source notes.