Interior ministry questions mayors over lavish spending in local deals

The Interior Ministry has started questioning mayors over what officials describe as “extravagant spending” in local council deals, sources told Hespress AR.

According to insiders, inspection teams from the ministry’s General Inspectorate of Territorial Administration uncovered cases of suspicious contracts involving luxury car rentals and purchases, inflated allowances for deputies and council members, and costly events and office equipment.

The inquiries mainly target councils in Casablanca-Settat and Marrakech-Safi. Investigators say some mayors ignored repeated warnings from local governors to stick to essential needs like drinking water projects and drought relief, instead pushing through deals labeled as “luxuries.”

Final inspection reports are expected to topple a number of council heads and could lead to trials before Morocco’s financial crimes courts.

The probes also revealed that more than 23 local councils had awarded contracts to just three companies, often linked to relatives of officials. 

Several small businesses filed complaints, claiming they were deliberately excluded from bidding. 

Audits showed tender documents included unnecessary clauses that only a handful of companies could meet and names that kept reappearing in winning bids, fueling suspicions of favoritism and backroom deals.

Some of the questioned contracts had already been blocked by governors for breaching the government’s austerity guidelines or due to procedural flaws, even though deadlines for project delivery were approaching.

The findings point to systemic problems in how local contracts are managed. By law, municipal finances are subject to oversight from regional audit courts and annual reviews by the General Inspectorate of Finance or the Interior Ministry’s inspectorate.

Interior Minister Abdelouafi Laftit has already issued directives urging governors to report all irregularities in the application of Morocco’s public procurement decree.