Driss Guerraoui, President of the Competition Council. MAP
The Royal Cabinet announces that Mohammed VI has appointed an ad hoc committee to rule on “possible agreements between oil companies and the Moroccan Petroleum Group” after receiving two decisions from the Competition Council, raising the sanction of 9% of the Sales of oil tankers at 8% in a few days. The management of the file by Driss Guerraoui was castigated by members. The instance is thus withdrawn from the case.
King Mohammed VI received on Thursday July 23 a note from the President of the Competition Council relating to the “Council decision” on the “Possible agreements between oil companies and the Moroccan Petroleum Group”, announced the Royal Cabinet in a press release on the evening of July 28.
The Royal Cabinet explains that in this note, the President brings to the King the content of “The decision adopted by the plenary, on Wednesday 22 July by 12 votes for and 1 vote against” to impose a financial penalty in the amount of “9% of the annual turnover achieved in Morocco” for the 3 leading distributors and a lower amount for the other companies.
He added that the king received, this Tuesday, July 28, a second note from the same president of the Competition Council on the same subject and in which the person concerned informed the sovereign of the “Amount of penalties imposed” to distributors, during the plenary on July 27. This time, the amount is set at 8% of annual turnover without distinction between companies and without any indication of the distribution of votes.
In addition, continues the same source, the Sovereign also received on July 28 a file from several members of the Council in which they report that “The management of this file was characterized by procedural transgressions and actions on the part of the president which marred the quality and the impartiality of the decision taken by the Council “. In this regard, the signatories raise the following complaints:
– Communication harmful to the examination of the case and to the credibility of the Council
– Forced passage to the vote before the debate is closed
– Truncated interpretation and violation of article 39 of the law on freedom of prices and competition
– Opacity of the investigation procedure, marked by a selective sharing of documents
– Non-satisfaction of members’ requests for a balanced examination of the arguments put forward by the companies
– Behavior of the president which suggests that he acts on instructions or according to a personal agenda.
In view of the above and in view of the confusion surrounding this file and the contradictory versions presented, the King, firmly attached to the independence and credibility of the institutions and guarantor of their proper functioning, decided to set up an ad-hoc commission tasked with carrying out the necessary investigations to clarify the situation and submitting a detailed report on the subject to its attention as soon as possible, develops the Royal Cabinet.
The latter announces that the Sovereign has kindly appointed the following senior officials as members of the said commission:
– The two presidents of the chambers of Parliament (Habib El Malki and Hakim Benchamas)
– The president of the Constitutional Court (Said Ihrai)
– The president of the Court of Auditors (Driss Jettou)
– Le wali de Bank Al Maghrib (Abdellatif Jouahri)
– The president of the Authority for probity, prevention and the fight against corruption (Bachir Rachdi).
The coordination mission will be carried out by the Secretary General of the Government (Mohamed Hajoui), concludes the Royal Cabinet.
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