SM le Roi reçoit le premier président de la Cour des Comptes
Since 24th October 2017, the true meaning of responsibility has finally been unearthed in Morocco!
This is surely the first thing that can be said on hearing the announcement of His Majesty dismissing three ministers (and what ministers they were!), a secretary of state and the chief executive officer of a state-owned company, not to mention a bevy of fourteen or so high-ranking bureaucrats whose names have not yet been made public.
To this bandwagon can be added the names of a number of former ministers who are now barred from assuming any official responsibility.
Understandably, as soon as King Mohammed VI’s decision was made public in the immediate aftermath of the audience granted to the highly respected Driss Jettou, the President of the Court of Auditors, the news spread like wildfire across the entire country.
In truth, never in the history of Morocco have we witnessed a clean sweep on such a grand scale!
Dura lex, sed lex
But who can contest the legitimacy of this decision after reading the report, or at least its summary, of the Court of Auditors?
Who can refute the findings of the magistrates reporting to Mr Jettou, beyond the empathy that one may have for such and such a character who has been ‘let go’, some of whom have indeed devoted a large part of their professional careers to serving the government and the country, often with a sense of whole-hearted dedication and self-sacrifice and sometimes to the detriment of their family life and their health?
Who can dismiss the reports of the two ad-hoc commissions, those of the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Finance, which paint a true picture of the numerous shortcomings, failings, inertia and sometimes even incompetence, which initially set alight the city of Al Hoceima and the surrounding region for many months and then sparked the royal anger expressed in the two recent speeches given by the Sovereign?
Indeed, a single statistic justifies the legitimacy of this historical ‘offloading’ – the implementation rate of the projects programmed under the Manarat Al Moutawassit plan was less than 1% between October 2015 and July 2017, in other words, just 5 projects were implemented from the 644 projects envisaged!!!
Another incontestable piece of data was that the Ministry of Housing disbursed a mere MAD 50 million of the MAD 244 million budget that had been earmarked for housing projects in Al Hoceima and the surrounding region for the period 2016-17.
It was clearly understood by all that, given the severity of the royal remarks, there would surely be repercussions, with King Mohammed VI even evoking the possibility of a political earthquake.
We are now able to understand the import of this royal announcement which, in addition to the large-scale sacking of public officials would have further consequences.
Even so, did Mr Mohamed Hassad, former Minister of the Interior, Mr Nabil Benabdallah at the Housing Ministry, El Houcine Ouardi at Health, Larbi Bencheikh at the OFPPT and Ali Fassi Fihri at ONEE really prove unworthy?
Are these high-ranking political officials and civil servants simply fuses that need removing, expiatory victims, characters who are to be thrown to the mercy of public opinion in order to calm the well-founded fury that has gripped the country, particularly in Al Hoceima, over recent months?
Some would agree with this view, whereas others would lean towards a more political interpretation, which even smacks of politicking.
But in both cases, they would be overlooking two factors.
First, the failings that have been pointed out did exist, without a shadow of a doubt. And second, something which is indisputable also is that each of these officials were the initial link in their chain of command and were ultimately responsible in their respective domains.
Two sides of the same coin
While the concept of responsibility is enshrined in the wording of the 2011 Constitution, it also has a corollary (accountability), which King Mohammed VI emphatically and unhesitatingly applied on 24th October, because this piece of legislation, to the letter and in meaning, requires that every public official with responsibility is duty-bound to accomplish the tasks entrusted to him or her in a time-bound manner and with success.
That is why the measures taken will already serve as an example in the consciousness of common citizens who will surely appreciate such a commitment to action, without precedent in the Kingdom’s recent history.
Politicians, officials, elected representatives and civil servants, regardless of their rank, will now realise that accountability will be required of them at every occasion and circumstance. This was the promise made by the Sovereign, who also requested Mr Jettou to extend his enquiry to every region of the Kingdom and to every public body, with a particular focus on the sadly infamous Regional Investment Centres.
From this day onwards, any public function or responsibility will be comparable to a coin, where one side of the coin stands for responsibility and the other accountability.
This is what primarily comes to mind in the aftermath of the sacking of the four members of the government of Mr El Othmani, who is now obliged to reshuffle his team.
And, although the royal decision impacted the Party of Progress and Socialism in particular, with three of its politburo members discredited, and the Popular Movement Party, which has also been lambasted, it is clear that the impact of this tsunami will not be limited to these two political parties and their leaders.
Watch this space for the next instalment of the saga. Because in politics, there are ripple effects, just like pebbles skimming the surface of the water.
Fahd YATA
Original article : https://lnt.ma/apres-limogeage-royal-premier-jour-dune-nouvelle-ere/