Morocco Corruption Probe Targets Mayors Over Real Estate Deals

Inspection commissions are currently examining the archives of several elected councils. The first damning reports point to mayors who granted themselves and their relatives direct subdivision permits. On the outskirts of Casablanca, one elected official notably diverted public infrastructure projects (roads, lighting) toward secretly acquired plots, taking advantage of suspicious amendments to development plans to multiply their market value tenfold, reports Hespress.

Real estate scandal and corruption: local elected officials threatened with removal

These serious breaches of Organic Law 113.14 extend to systematic blackmail practices. In the Marrakech-Safi region, one official forced developers to transfer strategic plots to him, then resold them through family-owned companies, pocketing undisclosed commissions of up to 200,000 dirhams per plot. Other elected officials illegally made the issuance of building permits conditional on the repayment of debts, or provided false certificates of compliance for unfinished construction projects.

Faced with the scale of these dysfunctions and clear violations of urban planning regulations, the central administration is relying on these audits to prepare suspension and removal proceedings against all the territorial officials involved.