King Dismisses 4 Ministers over Delaying Hoceima Projects

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI dismissed on Tuesday four ministers and a top official from their duties over delaying projects of the Hoceima Lighthouse of the Mediterranean or “Manarat Al Mutawassit.”

A royal statement said on Tuesday that the Moroccan king decided to dismiss four ministers including Mohamed Hassad, Minister of National Education, former Minister of the Interior in the government of former head of government Abdelilah Benkirane, El Houssaine El Ouardi, Minister of Health under the governments of Saad Eddine El Othmani and Abdelilah Benkirane, Mohamed Nabil Benabdellah, Minister of Housing under Saâd Eddine El Othmani and Abdelilah Benkirane, and Larbi Benckheikh, Secretary of State in charge of vocational training, who previously held the position of Director General of the Office of Vocational Training and Job Promotion (OFPPT).

Also, the King dismissed Ali Fassi Fihri, director general of the National Office of Water and Electricity.
King Mohammed also reprimanded five former ministers incriminated by the report, and said he was “disappointed in their performance at their respective ministries and he would never again entrust them with any public missions.”

The officials were dismissed after a Court of Auditors presented to the King its report pointing out to the numerous delays and negligence of the dismissed ministers and officials. “At the level of implementation of the projects, there has been a significant delay in the launching of projects, while the majority of them have not been launched at all, in the absence of concrete initiatives by some of the actors involved in their actual launch,” said the communiqué of the Royal Cabinet.

The dismissals came in the framework of the “political earthquake” listed in the King’s speech delivered last October in Rabat before the members of Parliament’s two houses at the opening of the first session of the first legislative year of the tenth legislature. “Managing the citizens’ affairs and serving their interests are both a national responsibility and a sacred trust, and in this regard, there is no room for negligence or procrastination,” he said.