Morocco Faces Over 10,000 Legal Challenges in 2022, Many Over Land Expropriation

It emerges from the assessment of the Ministry of Economy and Finance regarding the defense of the State and the prevention of administrative, civil, criminal and commercial disputes that about 10,000 additional cases, a good part of which concern the expropriation of land for public utility, were recorded during this year, reports Aujourd’hui Le Maroc. Compared to the statistics of the last report of the Judicial Agency of the Kingdom (AJR), this provisional figure represents a significant decrease. In total, 17,708 new cases were handled by the AJR during the year 2020 against 20,320 in 2019, 17,528 in 2018, 17,220 in 2017 and 17,864 in 2016. In addition, there is a savings of about 2 billion dirhams in the difference between the amounts requested and the judgments rendered.

Lawsuits against the State have indeed decreased over the past five years, but remain high. Faced with this unsightly observation, the Ministry of Economy and Finance has decided to take actions aimed at improvement. Thus, it has trained civil servants in the Ministry of the Interior, the Court of Auditors, Housing and Urban Planning, and the Vocational Training Office in risk management and anticipation in recent months.