Socialist MP Accused of Corruption Shocks with Alcohol Comments and Execution Threats

"The socialist activists drank alcohol calmly and out of love," stated the deputy Mehdi Alaoui in front of some 3,000 supporters who were transported to attend a regional congress held at his home in the commune of El Melaab, province of Errachidia, in the presence of the first secretary of the party, Driss Lachgar, as well as several members of the political bureau. Continuing, the elected official promised to "hunt down the corrupt and the criminals to execute them in the public square." These statements have sparked lively controversy.

Alaoui, who makes such statements, is far from irreproachable. Prosecuted as part of an investigation into a vast case of embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds related to the management of the municipality he headed during the previous municipal term, he must appear next Thursday before the investigating judge in charge of financial crimes at the Court of Appeal of Fès. A report from the General Inspection of Territorial Administration under the Ministry of the Interior is damning against him.

In this report, mention is made of a series of irregularities in the management of municipal revenues: arbitrary setting of taxes on beverage outlets and the extraction of quarry materials, non-recovery of taxes from retailers who have neither declared their figures nor paid within the legal deadlines, lack of sanctions for non-payment, particularly against a company operating a quarry without quarterly declaration or annual balance sheet, non-recovery of sums related to parking or public transport fees, unpaid rents for municipal properties, etc., reports Al Akhbar.

Other irregularities: the weakness of the rents collected, rarely revised as required by law, opaque management of expenses, the recurrent use of purchase orders of nearly 200,000 dirhams each, instead of public contracts, for technical studies often entrusted to unqualified firms. Not to mention an unexplained increase of nearly 48% in expenses related to occasional agents between 2017 and 2019, with the hiring of 125 people, without a clear assessment of real needs or transparency on the nature of the tasks entrusted. If the facts are proven, the USFP elected official risks a lot.