Akhannouch’s party adequately justified election campaign expenditures, says Morocco’s supreme audit council

The national rally of independents (RNI) provided adequate justifications regarding all the complaints registered against the party’s expenditures during the September 8 elections, said Morocco’s supreme audit council.

Based on analyzing more than 30 political parties’ annual accounts, the council recently issued a report on the funds allocated to Moroccan parties during the period of 2020 and 2021, as it provided details on each party’s expenditures, including the council’s observations regarding their financial clarity.

The Finance Law for the year 2020 allocated MAD 64.44 million fund to cover the parties’ expenses, distributed between the contribution to cover management costs, organize regular national conferences, and encourage the representation of women.

In addition to the support provided by the state, parties’ self-resources amounted to MAD 30.57 million, which was distributed between engagement duties and contributions (23.75%) and non-current proceeds (41.24%).

The Council said that most of 34 political parties in the country deposited their annual accounts, excluding the Free Moroccan Party, the Democratic Covenant Party, the Citizen Forces Party, and the Union Party National People’s Forces.

“Four parties did not submit all statements related to their bank accounts, and the matter is related to the Social Democracy movement party, the Moroccan Green Party, and the Moroccan Union for Democracy, and the National Democratic Party.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Path Party and the National Democratic Party did not provide an inventory of documents,” the council added in the report.

The Council said 11 parties did not include the amounts of support to be returned to the national treasury, including the Popular Movement Party, the Democratic Movement Party, the Social Democratic Forces Front, and the National Congress Party, and the Freedom and Justice Party.

On the other hand, the report noted that the Justice and Development Party (PJD) did not declare, in its bulletin, financial support of MAD 200,000 granted by the party to its candidates during the legislative elections.

During the September 8 elections, many political parties voiced their concerns over RNI’s high expenditures, accusing the party’s leader Aziz Akhannouch, now head of government, of exceeding the amount fixed by the Moroccan law.

In the recently issued report, the council said the party presented accurate justifications facing all the registered complaints.

Despite registering complaints about 1.09% of political parties’ spending in the last two years, the supreme council applauded the ongoing efforts of Moroccan parties in proving expenditures;