Morocco Cracks Down on Municipal Corruption: Mayors Face Dismissal for Conflicts of Interest

While the organic laws relating to regions, prefectures, provinces and communes prohibit the elected official from engaging in any activity presenting a conflict of interest, it has been found that some elected officials and commune presidents violate these laws. Some elected officials continue their contractual relationships or practice their activities (renting shops, operating commercial premises, etc.) that linked them to their local authorities before they became members, it is noted. Based on these findings, the Minister of the Interior, in a circular, called on the walis and governors to initiate the dismissal procedure against the elected official who practices this activity in his own name, as a partner or as a representative of others or, also, in the name of his wife, his ascendants and descendants, reports Al Akhbar.

"The prohibition remains effective for any private interest relationship during the current term, even if it began before the election of the incriminated member. The objectives and results remain the same as these interests are established before or during the current term as long as the offense continues as long as the elected official is part of the local authority council," the circular states. The content of this administrative letter must be disseminated to all commune presidents as well as to the districts within their territorial sphere of influence.

Abdelouafi Laftit also called on the authority agents to ensure the application of all the provisions of the circular in accordance with the rules of "governance and the principles and values of democracy, transparency and the correlation between responsibility and accountability".