Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch during the One Ocean Summit in Brest, February 11, 2022. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP
Soaring fuel prices in Morocco have reignited a controversy over business-political conflicts of interest and have drawn heavy criticism from Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, an oil tycoon.
For the first time since the war in Ukraine, Mr Akhannouch had to explain to Parliament last week about the sharp rise in food and fuel prices (Dirham 14 per liter of diesel at the pump, or €1.32, a record compared to a monthly price). minimum wage of just over 260 euros). At the heart of the parliamentary debate: the demand to cap the “exorbitant” margins of fuel dealers.
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On the defensive, Mr Akhannouch, a businessman who built his fortune on hydrocarbon distribution, described the “huge” profits denounced by MPs as “lies” and ensured that they had “remained virtually the same since 1997”. When his position is not threatened, the prime minister is in the hot seat because of his dual role as political leader and major shareholder in Afriquia, the leader in the local hydrocarbons market with Total and Shell. Under pressure, his government released an envelope of €200 million in favor of road hauliers to appease their anger.
“Excessive” margins
Consumer prices (+3.3% for January and February 2022 over one year) will continue to rise to “levels above the average over the last decade”, the High Commission for Planning (HCP) warned. Result: According to the HCP, the morale of Moroccan households has been “the lowest level since 2008” since the beginning of the year.
It’s not the first time that hydrocarbon-dependent Morocco has been going through such a crisis, but until 2015 the state subsidized petrol and diesel at the pump. A guarantor of “social peace” for decades, this subsidy was buried in 2015 because of its high cost to the state treasury. At the time, the government planned to offset this with direct monthly financial aid to the poorest, support that never saw the light of day.
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In 2018, three years after the liberalization of the market, a scandal broke out: in a parliamentary report, fuel traders were accused of achieving “excessive” margins against the background of high prices being denounced on social networks. Aziz Akhannouch, boss of Afriquia and Minister of Agriculture, finds himself in the dock and embodies the collusion between the business community and the ruling class.
The Competition Council handling the case struck an agreement between oil giants in July 2020. The trio Afriquia, Total and Shell face fines of up to 9% of their annual turnover. However, the President of the Council, Driss Guerraoui, was arrested for irregularities in King Mohammed VI’s proceedings. dismiss. Sanctions are not imposed.
refinery closed
Since liberalization, traders’ profits “have reached more than 45 billion dirhams [4,25 milliards d’euros] by 2021,” says Hussein El Yamani, delegate of the Democratic Trade Union Confederation (CDT).
“Whatever the origin of the rise in the price of a keg – a war, a shortage, a pandemic – traders are taking their profit as if nothing happened,” the weekly TelQuel recently criticized. Under the headline “The Ambiguous Game of Akhannouch”, this newspaper illustrated its front page with two portraits, one serious and the other smiling, with the headlines: “Passive Prime Minister” and “Happy Businessman”. “The conflict of interest is evident within the government,” said economist Mohamed Benmoussa, quoted by TelQuel.
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The executive has also been criticized for its “inability” to restart the kingdom’s only refinery in Mohammedia, which has been in liquidation since 2018. For trade unionist Hussein El Yamani, it must either be nationalized or allowed to be taken over. His restart “will bring down prices by more than dirham a liter,” he said, as “imported crude oil is cheaper.” [que le raffiné] and that its storage capacities are greater than those of the oil companies”. But the Akhannouch government has so far shown no willingness to respond to the call.