Morocco’s Urban Planning Crisis: Corruption and Chaos Exposed

According to information reported by the Hespress website, these internal reports directly implicate local authority officials, caids and pashas, as well as elected officials. The former are accused of a lack of control on the ground and a "weakness of coordination" with the municipalities, which has allowed the multiplication of illegal constructions.

Even more seriously, the documents reveal a "complicity" between certain authority agents and municipal presidents to circumvent the law. They are accused of having issued building permits and certificates of compliance in violation of urban planning rules, in particular without consulting the urban agencies as required by the procedure.

The inspectors uncovered several manipulations, such as the backdated signing of permits or the issuance of unregistered certificates. The investigation was based in particular on aerial surveys by drones, which revealed a number of offenses much higher than that recorded in the official reports of the local authorities.

Faced with the scale of the phenomenon, the reports insist on the "urgency of implementing legislative initiatives" to redistribute and clarify the responsibilities in urban planning between the local authorities and the elected councils. This recommendation comes as the Minister of the Interior has recently threatened legal action against elected officials who sign unilateral authorizations.