An investigation was opened into administrative and financial irregularities in the Casablanca community during the term of former mayor Mohamed Sajid.

Agadir24

The National Brigade of the Judicial Police began its investigations on Monday morning into the management of the affairs of the Casablanca community during the term of the former mayor, Mohamed Sajid, who was a guest of the National Office for Combating Financial and Economic Crimes, to answer a set of points recorded in reports prepared earlier about administrative and financial irregularities.

Al Sabah reported that the investigations do not concern Mayor Sajid alone, but also include responsible members of the group during the same mandate period, and managers of companies that obtained various deals.

According to the same source, no information has been leaked about the files being investigated, nor about the number of people who will be included in the hearing procedures, which are being conducted under the supervision of the Attorney General at the Court of Appeal in Casablanca. However, identical sources indicated that the central file of the investigations will likely include suspicions of administrative and financial corruption, especially those recorded in the Casablanca massacres, which were monitored by the Supreme Council of Accounts in 2015.

The research also targets the delegated management contract that was granted to a Turkish company before it withdrew and the management was entrusted to another company. It also recorded negligence and the absence of elements and data that would enable the analysis of the financial balance of the contract, especially the operating account and the future investment and maintenance program, the annex related to the inventory of properties and equipment, and the designs of the inventory of achievements.

The investigations also included assigning tasks, including cutting meat, to a company that has no contractual relationship with the Casablanca Urban Community, which raised major questions about the matter.

The Supreme Council of Accounts report, on which the ongoing investigations were based, also recorded that the group incurred large unjustified expenses, including water and electricity consumption expenses in slaughterhouses during the period from May 2008 to August 2011, estimated at 19 million dirhams. These amounts, in addition to tax duties, were calculated by the company entrusted with management as expenses and liabilities in the company’s accounting statements, although the specifications book indicates that the consumption of water, electricity and fuel and the maintenance of machinery and equipment are borne by the entrusted company, not the group. Not to mention the company itself violating the provisions of the General Tax Code and Law No. 9.88 on the accounting duties of merchants, which orders the calculation of expenses and resources without taxes.

The Supreme Council of Accounts report, which relied on its observations in the ongoing research, also recorded an exaggeration in the costs of completing the cooling hall and the offal market, as the room was built through two deals concluded for lump sums amounting to 12 million dirhams, and during the completion the amount was exceeded to exceed 13 million dirhams.