Morocco Cracks Down on Urban Planning Violations, Threatens Local Officials with Sanctions

The presidents of the communes who will violate the urban planning regulations in force will be sanctioned. These are the instructions that the walis and governors have received from the Minister of the Interior, Abdelouafi Laftit. These instructions follow the correspondence that the wali of Rabat-Salé-Kenitra, Mohamed El Yacoubi, addressed to the Minister of Urban Planning, Fatima-Zahra Mansouri, to denounce the violations of urban planning rules, reports Al Akhbar. In his correspondence, he mentioned the issuance to architects of certificates of compliance for projects whose work has not yet been completed.

For its part, the general inspection of the territorial administration has produced a report that corroborates the denunciations made by the wali of Rabat-Salé-Kenitra. The report highlights several dysfunctions related to non-compliance with the regulations in force: the issuance of building permits on land lots resulting from illegal subdivision and the issuance of connection authorizations to the electricity network in the absence of a building permit. There is also the fact that some deputy mayors of the commune grant building permits without having a delegation of signature in the field of urban planning.

The Court of Auditors, for its part, commissioned audits, which identified several dysfunctions in the management of the urban planning sector. According to the audit report, most communes did not have validated development plans or were late in implementing them. The Court of Auditors also reveals the non-compliance of newly created subdivisions with the technical criteria in force, the non-completion of road works, public lighting, drainage canals and green spaces by the developers, etc.