Rabat Mayor’s Lavish Travel Budget Sparks Controversy Amid Economic Challenges

Despite the difficult period Morocco is going through due to the adverse effects of the health crisis and the war in Ukraine, the mayor of Rabat and her councilors have planned to spend around 100,000 DH for their transportation costs and 300,000 DH for their accommodation, catering and reception expenses in 2022, according to a document published by Omar Hiyani, a municipal councilor of the Federation of the Democratic Left (FGD) in Rabat.

For the year 2023, the Rabat city hall plans to increase these expenses to exorbitant levels, the document cited by Hespress specifies. Thus, the city hall proposes to increase the transportation costs of the president and his councilors abroad from 100,000 DH approved in 2022 to 400,000 DH, and to increase the costs of their missions abroad from 100,000 to 300,000 DH.

The accommodation, catering and reception expenses should also increase from 300,000 to 1,500,000 DH. "What is the mayor of Rabat doing in the midst of the crisis? In one year: Foreign travel budget x4, foreign mission expenses x3 and accommodation, catering and reception expenses x5," denounces Omar Hiyani in a tweet. And he adds: "One wonders if the Mayor of Rabat and her councilors, who are supposed to be civil servants of a country in crisis, are staying in palaces and dining in starred restaurants."

This year, Mayor Asmaa Rhlalou attended the Africities 9 Summit held in Kisumu, Kenya from May 17 to 21, 2022. This is the only trip by the mayor reported by the press. No information on the planned trips for next year requiring an increase in the budget appears on the city hall’s website. Upon taking office as mayor, Asmaa had accused her predecessors of "poor management leading to a fragile financial situation", also mentioning "the 2,400 ghost civil servants of the Council".