Morocco Bans Ex-Solar Agency Chief from Travel Amid Mismanagement Probe

Behind this ban on the former secretary general of the PAM, his mismanagement of Masen (Moroccan agency for solar energy), which he has chaired for more than ten years, but Mustapha Bakkoury "is also suspected of ’intelligence with a foreign state’ which could be Germany. Berlin would be interested in the green energy projects launched in the kingdom" through Masen. It is also on the management of this agency that Mustapha Bakkoury would be targeted by an investigation by the public prosecutor’s office opened three months ago, notes the daily Assabah.

The current CEO of Masen was appointed by King Mohammed VI in December 2009. But very early on, suspicions of mismanagement and lightness at the head of the super-agency began to weigh on him. In a dossier, the magazine Économie et Entreprises titled "Storm warning on Masen". The magazine notably mentioned "a lack of fluidity of processes at the managerial level", also pointing out that "the president of Masen would be much more absorbed by the Casablanca Region and its major real estate projects, which would prevent him from resolving other urgent issues".

Last October, during a session on renewable energies, chaired by King Mohammed VI, he noted a number of delays in "the execution of this vast project and drew attention to the need to bring this strategic project to a successful conclusion within the allotted time and under the best conditions, by acting with all the required rigor".