Moroccan prime minister launches new anti-corruption authority
2008-12-04
The central anti-corruption authority promises to work towards eradicating corruption.
By Sarah Touahri for Magharebia in Rabat – 04/12/08
 [Sarah Touahri] The Moroccan government inaugurated a new authority to combat corruption on Tuesday in Rabat. |
Moroccan Prime Minister Abbas El Fassi presided on Tuesday (December 2nd) over the inauguration ceremony of a central anti-corruption authority, which includes members from various ministries, associations, unions and professional organisations.
The committee is responsible for proposing anti-corruption policies to the government, particularly with regards to co-operation between the public and private sectors. It will inform the relevant legal authorities of any actions which may constitute acts punishable by law.
Abdesselam Boudrar, appointed by King Mohammed VI to lead the new authority, said his new group will operate across the kingdom and present the prime minister and the justice minister with annual status reports on the progress made against corruption. These reports will then be published and circulated.
"The creation of regional branches of the Authority must take place as quickly as possible," Boudrar stated, "so that its action can be intensified as it works closely with the public to solve their problems. Work on the ground with local authorities and associations will help us to perceive the problem more clearly."
The authority is launching a national programme of action involving every preventative, controlling, educational and communication method available. Furthermore, the harmonisation of national legislation with the provisions of the UN anti-corruption convention, ratified by Morocco, will help to define a framework for action.
El Fassi promised committee members all necessary resources to help them fulfil their mission. "The creation of such a body is part of the process of bringing morality to public life," he said. "In particular, this involves the reform of the justice system and the simplification of administrative procedures to guarantee transparency and prevent corruption."
El Fassi added that this organisation was an important initiative, and is necessary "to weave responsible and transparent relations with citizens at all levels."
Mourad Ouahba, UNDP representative in Rabat, praised Morocco’s efforts in fighting corruption, particularly with the creation of this new body and the ratification of the United Nations' anti-corruption convention.
The public holds mixed views on the creation of the authority. Although some feel that this is a good initiative, others think the problem is so deep-rooted that it will be difficult to eradicate.
Samira Belfarah, a student, said, "I think that if the authority applies all its powers, it will manage to reduce the extent of corruption quite effectively, especially by closely working with the people."
On the other hand, Hamid Zaïtouni, a worker in the public sector, commented that "there has been talk for years of the government making an effort to combat corruption. Time will tell whether this authority is going to work, or whether it’s just talk."
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B.MOHA Posted 2008-12-05
Anti-corruption authority!? Excellent initiative, but are we going to attack the suspicious former cases?? Example: the contracts for the evil parking meters in Casablanca and Rabat??? These are blatant huge-scale scam contracts!!! If it is not corruption in these contracts, then it is blatant incompetence, and, as a consequence, immediate changes are necessary, the termination and cancellation of these evil contracts being of the highest priority. And, the sooner the better! This will surely be the first weak but serious sign of rediscovering the tiniest bit of the citizens’ trust. The citizens no longer trust anything, especially not the authorities, of which this will be another!!! This is a fight against corruption when they are force to pay change on a daily basis to the benefit of these foreign mercenaries!!! The citizens’ trust needs to be rediscovered by demonstrating something concrete to them.
Eng. Hasan Al-Bahkali Posted 2008-12-05
It is noticed that anti-corruption authorities are set up in third world countries. But in reality, they do not have a concrete activity. Corruption is on the rise. World annual report and determining top and last ranks has become clear. Where we were and where we are. Engineer Hasan Al Bahkali.
سائح بيعشق المغرب ولاكن Posted 2008-12-07
Morocco is a nice country with its wonderful landscape varying from the north to the south. However, bribery, or in other words, the hateful corruption has become widely-spread. It welcomes you and bids you goodbye in Mohamed V airport. It kills in you the joy of meeting. It kills every nice moment you experienced in this country when you leave. When you wake up at the nightmare of bribery, covered threatening by fabricating problems to you. The smallest of these problems is the foolishness of a stupid security officer pretending that there are foreign currencies such as the dollar in one of your bags. But unfortunately here, you should either show to the stupidity of security officers, as you are sure, that you have nothing of what this idiot pretends or miss your flight when this delay is not in your interest as you have some business in your country. (Do not tell me why you don’t file a complaint, because you know the outcome). So you give in to his foolish wish by giving him a few dirhams less than one hundred. These acts certainly shock, distort the image and keep away those who visited Mohamed V airport from facing such foolishnesses. By the way, they target Gulf people in particular. I hope that these heinous acts stop even if this requires changing all security officers or appointing a controller for each one of them. My greetings to my second country Morocco. I hope that it recovers from this disease.
Adel Posted 2008-12-08
It is a good initiative from the government to try again but most disease (corruption)as l call it is coming from the authority itself ,namely police ,and local authority that rely on( MKADAM and KAID )whereas, other countries are working out all with technology to gather data about citizens.However ,trying to work out the problem only from one side is a mistake too .People need financial resources and also need to be independent and feel tangible measures from the government ,feel secure ,trust,have full confidence in the public authority .In addition to this ,l would say that zero tolerance has to be applied on any corrupted person ,whatever senior their positions are :judges ,officers ,ministers ... otherwise nothing will help Morocco to get rid off this deadly disease.
nassima Posted 2008-12-08
I am Nassima. I am 9. I was born on 01/06/1999. My country is Morocco. I will never let it go. Bye, ok. I ask society to fight corruption because it is a widespread phenomenon.
Mohamed Posted 2008-12-31
As everybody knows, corruption is pulling back every effort to move this beautiful country forward, in every field, most administrations fabricate a problem to delay the procedure of getting your documents which either force you to bribe them or it'll take forever for you to get what you need...it's very simple to fix this, start from high up, you get caught, you're fired, facing prison time and a big fine, no exception, make an example of few of the big execs and you'll see. Make a special agency where people can report their problems without having to face retaliation, and anyone who gets so many complaints should be investigated and if found guilty, you know the rule; no exception, fired+prison+fine, I'm sure it'll reduce the monster disease of corruption dramatically......
مغربي ككل المغاربة Posted 2008-12-31
Salam alikum. We congratulate ourselves for this authority. We ask God, the Almighty, to get all rid of this microbe which spoilt the life of Moroccans materially and morally. We all aspire to a Morocco without corruption. If you need civil society, you will find, God willing, that there are many Moroccan volunteers to help you. As regards my humble opinion, we must fight corruption from many channels which I can sum up in two main points. 1) Firstly, corruption must be attacked in itself by beginning with people in influential posts which give orders as the saying goes (if you want to clean the stairs, you must throw water from upstairs). We must also provide protection to those who reject these immoral orders starting from the principle of (no obedience for a subject in the disobedience of the Creator). 2) Secondly, we must strengthen the weak immunity we have. We must encourage the few honest employees by creating prizes and bonuses which might be important in professional promotion. This is because we see people who have dignity and pride rejected. They are subject to the derision of their colleagues. God is the assistant for His cause.
HASSAN Posted 2009-01-16
Bribery and corruption is a big problem in our country. I visit Morocco every year,and it pains me to find that Police who are supposed to protect you, make you feel unsafe. Last time i was in Casablanca,Police stopped me and asked me for my ID, I told them i did not have my ID with me,they put me at the back of their van,drove me around for about 1/2 hour and asked me to give them money if i want to be released,i had to give them 200 dh. This is so shocking and so bad i keep promising myself i`ll never visit again. Please sort this problem out ,it`s so shamefull.
Gaudence Ndayizeye Posted 2009-02-02
Morocco’s current policy of dealing with corruption is an honourable fight and it should be encouraged. As the Attorney General of the Anti-Corruption Court of Burundi, I shall not fail to congratulate the new Moroccan authority charges with fighting corruption throughout the Kingdom. I wish them courage and, more importantly, I hope he makes an effort to distance himself from this; these dealings often lead to corruption because of the extravagant ego centrism involved. When we consider ourselves the centre of all interest, we always have the tendency to serve ourselves instead of simply serving. Good luck, my brother!
SIMO DU CASA OCCUPE Posted 2009-02-10
There is unofficial corruption and then there is official corruption. A flagrant exampled of the latter is the parking meters of evil, officially authorised by Morocco’s public powers that dealt with and continue to regularly deal with the official signing of their contracts. So long as the parking-meter scam continues this official corruption will still, as always, continue in practice. So long as the victims of this shameful corruption daily curse those who signed for this, those who are benefiting from this marked theft and those who allow this to continue, then they have the right to bring an end to their power. And, they ask why people still flee, hating politics, politicians, elections and so on.
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