Morocco is grappling with roughly 100 billion dirhams tied up in nonperforming debts, Justice Minister Abdel Latif Ouahbi said Monday, highlighting systemic issues in the judicial and financial sectors.
“These funds are circulating through unscrupulous operators,” Ouahbi told the House of Representatives’ Committee on Justice, Legislation, and Human Rights. “We held a meeting with the governor of Bank Al-Maghrib and are moving toward halting and eliminating these practices.”
The minister stressed the economic impact of unlocking such capital. “If these funds were invested productively, they could significantly boost the economy and even finance another World Cup,” he said.
Ouahbi also addressed shortcomings in Morocco’s judicial expertise system, particularly regarding court-appointed experts. “The Court of Cassation states that when a party requests an expert opinion, the court does not assess the accuracy of that opinion,” he explained. “Judicial authorities have no right to intervene.”
He described the cycle of conflicting expert reports as a drain on banks and insurance companies. “Sometimes you have an expert report, a counter-report, and another counter-report. The biggest victims are insurers and banks,” Ouahbi said, illustrating the issue with a case in which a farmer used property valued at one billion centimes as collateral, defaulted on a bank loan, yet continued to use the land while the debt went unpaid for years.
“These loopholes allow individuals to retain mortgaged properties and continue exploiting them without repaying debts, contributing to the accumulation of massive nonperforming loans,” he added.
The minister emphasized that the current handling of debts often lacks precision, creating unfair outcomes and encouraging malpractice. “These issues make it necessary to revisit the system of judicial expertise, ensuring balance between expert independence and effective oversight,” Ouahbi said.
Highlighting the strategic role of judicial experts, he noted that “experts wield substantial influence, essentially shaping judicial decisions, yet judges often lack technical knowledge. The challenge is regulating them without compromising their independence.”
Ouahbi concluded that reforming the expertise system is one of the judiciary’s most pressing challenges, calling for structured oversight while preserving professional autonomy.
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