CORRUPTION-MOROCCO: Worries Rise With It

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Abderrahim El Ouali

CASABLANCA, Feb 21 2006 (IPS) - When Morocco slipped to a position as the 78th most corrupt country in the latest Transparency International report, the change reflected the perception of most Moroccans.

Transparency International (TI) ranks countries by the perceptions of its people, rather than by any objective comparisons of the extent of corruption. But publication of the perceptions has further triggered views why the country is seen to be more and more corrupt.

“Corruption is a structural matter and an integral part of the ‘security state’,” Abdullah Kamoune, member of the Moroccan Human Rights Association (AMDH) told IPS. And corruption has a long history in Morocco, he said.

“In the 19th century governors of regions in Morocco were obliged to come to the royal palace to offer gifts to the king so as to strengthen their position. As compensation, they were free to do what they want with citizens. This is the origin of the problem.”

Following independence from France in 1956, “some courageous initiatives were started to make economic, social, and cultural reforms through the first five-year plan from 1960 to 1964,” Kamoune said. “But the plan was aborted when king Mohamed V died in 1961.” In later years people either went the corrupt way, or went to prison, he said.

But the reasons are more than historical, such as “domination by the culture of fear, under-developed social relations, illiteracy and ignorance, and a popular culture which finds justifications for corruption,” economist Mustapha Antra told IPS.

State structures only help corruption, he said. “Procedures are very complicated and the law on justification of administrative decisions is not really in force. This leads to the spread of favouritism.”

The state, he said, “uses corruption to reproduce the political elite, to guarantee its continuity, and to retain the current political balances.” The state is “a system which itself is based on privileges.”

Corruption results in good measure also from the “informal economy which leads to smuggling and many other illegal relations, and the lack of a clear policy in salaries,” he said.

The TI report lists several scandals that brought the country down from 45th position in 1999, itself not particularly impressive.

Among the most well-known relates to the Hassan II mosque in Casablanca. “Construction was financed partly by ‘voluntary contributions’ and partly by the compulsory deduction of employees’ salaries, providing ample opportunities for racketeering and the embezzlement of funds,” the TI report says.

It says that the Inspection Générale des Finances (IGF) has revealed evidence of “gross financial fraud or embezzlement in banking, social security, agricultural credit, public housing, state contracts, public companies, municipal councils and international aid projects.”

A tourism and housing development credit fund lost 1.3 billion dollars partly because “fictional businessmen using fictional companies obtained credit from the bank and were later declared bankrupt,” the TI report said. Institutions need to open up, said Kamoune. “Competition must be clear and credible and we must give up compromising outside institutions. These compromises are more than corruption. They are political prostitution.”

The state is in a process of transformation since the accession of king Mohamed VI to throne in 1999, but Morocco seems to have lost the fight against corruption. While everyone is free to speak about corruption, “greater freedom of speech has not been accompanied by any significant improvement in accountability,” said the TI report.

The going joke in Morocco is that it has been spared weapons of mass destruction, but it is being destroyed by weapons of mass corruption.