Rabat Officials Demand Probe into Alleged Ghost Employee Payroll Scandal

Legal troubles ahead for Asmaa Rhlalou? The councilors of the Democratic Left Federation at the Rabat Commune Council have asked the public prosecutor’s office to open an investigation into the facts related to the payment of salaries to deceased persons and fictitious civil servants within this commune. According to them, the attendance rate of the commune’s employees does not exceed 36%, which means that nearly two-thirds of the employees are absent from their workplaces. Their wish is that the two former presidents of the commune, Mohamed Sadiki and Asmaa Rhlalou, be heard.

Since 2016, the councilors of the Democratic Left Federation (FGD) have denounced the management of human resources within the commune, in particular the phenomenon of "ghost civil servants" "which has considerably worsened in recent years", without being heard. The Regional Audit Office has confirmed, with supporting evidence "everything we were talking about, clearly demonstrating the state of laxity and poor management of the human and material resources of the commune," assured the FGD elected officials. Hence the importance, according to them, of identifying responsibilities and prosecuting all those responsible for this laxity and waste of public funds, in particular the two former presidents of the commune, Mohamed Sadiki, who ran the city’s affairs in the name of the Party of Justice and Development, and Asmaa Rhlalou, who presided over the city in the name of the National Rally of Independents (RNI).

The first woman elected mayor in Morocco, Asmaa Rhlalou, had submitted her resignation letter on Wednesday, February 28, 2024, less than thirty months after her election in September 2021.