{"id":5056,"date":"2026-10-19T19:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T19:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/?p=5056"},"modified":"2026-10-19T19:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T19:09:12","slug":"illicit-enrichment-asset-oversight-and-conflicts-of-interest-is-the-government-truly-prepared-to-move-from-promises-to-real-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/illicit-enrichment-asset-oversight-and-conflicts-of-interest-is-the-government-truly-prepared-to-move-from-promises-to-real-accountability\/","title":{"rendered":"Illicit Enrichment, Asset Oversight and Conflicts of Interest: Is the Government Truly Prepared to Move from Promises to Real Accountability?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Criminalising Illicit Enrichment and Preventing Conflicts of Interest: The New Government Programme Faces the Test of Legislation and Implementation<\/h1>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fatima Zahra Mansouri\u2019s announcement before the two chambers of Parliament on Monday, 19 October 2026, that the government intends to criminalise illicit enrichment and penalise conflicts of interest was not simply another item on a list of commitments for the next five years. It brought back to the forefront an issue that has never entirely disappeared from parliamentary debate since the withdrawal of the draft Penal Code reform in 2021. Since then, the subject has continued to feature in parliamentary initiatives and in recommendations from institutions calling for a coherent legal framework, notably the National Authority for Integrity, Prevention and the Fight Against Corruption.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The timing also gives the announcement particular significance. The new government, formed following the legislative elections of 23 September 2026, is required to present its programme to Parliament and secure its confidence at a time when public expectations concerning purchasing power and public services intersect with demands for integrity in public life and accountability. Mansouri has taken office as head of government after the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) came first in the elections with 97 seats, within a majority that also includes the National Rally of Independents, the Istiqlal Party and the Socialist Union of Popular Forces, according to published election results and information on the formation of the governing majority.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"ar\" dir=\"rtl\">\u0643\u064a\u0641 \u064a\u0645\u0643\u0646 \u062a\u062d\u0648\u064a\u0644 \u062a\u0639\u0647\u062f\u0627\u062a \u062a\u062c\u0631\u064a\u0645 \u0627\u0644\u0625\u062b\u0631\u0627\u0621 \u063a\u064a\u0631 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0634\u0631\u0648\u0639 \u0648\u0645\u0631\u0627\u0642\u0628\u0629 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0645\u062a\u0644\u0643\u0627\u062a \u0648\u062a\u0636\u0627\u0631\u0628 \u0627\u0644\u0645\u0635\u0627\u0644\u062d \u0625\u0644\u0649 \u0625\u062c\u0631\u0627\u0621\u0627\u062a \u0642\u0627\u0628\u0644\u0629 \u0644\u0644\u062a\u0637\u0628\u064a\u0642 \u0648\u0627\u0644\u0645\u062d\u0627\u0633\u0628\u0629\u061f <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/sohobn0V9t\">pic.twitter.com\/sohobn0V9t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Diplomatique.ma \u0627\u0644\u062f\u0628\u0644\u0648\u0645\u0627\u0633\u064a\u0629 (@diplomatique_ma) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/diplomatique_ma\/status\/2112255191613579317?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">October 19, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.x.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In presenting the government programme, Mansouri placed the fight against corruption, stronger mandatory asset declarations and the criminalisation of disclosing information to obtain advantages among the commitments relating to public integrity. She linked the prevention of conflicts of interest to Article 36 of the Constitution, which expressly provides for legal penalties for violations relating to conflicts of interest, alongside certain practices that undermine fair competition, financial offences, abuse of influence and the improper exercise of authority.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">However, announcing that conduct will be criminalised does not mean that a law already exists defining the elements of the offence, the conditions under which it can be proven and the applicable penalties. The constitutional provision establishes a binding direction for the legislature, but its implementation requires the identification of the officials, elected representatives, civil servants and other persons covered; clear rules specifying when interests must be declared or a person must abstain; the designation of authorities responsible for oversight and verification; and the establishment of penalties alongside safeguards for defence and appeal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The distance between a constitutional principle and the mechanisms needed to enforce it is precisely what has kept conflicts of interest at the centre of institutional debate. Not every conflict-of-interest situation automatically constitutes a criminal offence, just as a public official\u2019s ownership of a private interest or involvement in a particular activity does not, by itself, establish a violation of the law. The legal assessment depends on the nature of the interest, its connection to a public decision, the obligations imposed on the person concerned and whether the applicable disclosure and recusal rules have been respected.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Illicit enrichment is a separate issue. Depending on the definition adopted by the legislature, it concerns an increase in wealth that cannot be reconciled with legitimate sources of income. The law must determine the conditions for establishing the offence, the rules of evidence and the safeguards that apply. The two issues may arise in the same case, but they are not interchangeable: a conflict of interest can occur without an increase in wealth, while a discrepancy between income and assets does not, outside the required legal and evidentiary conditions, establish that a criminal offence has been committed.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">A draft withdrawn in 2021, with the issue now returning from within the governing majority<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The recent legislative record contains an episode that cannot be overlooked when assessing the new government commitment. Draft Law No. 10.16, concerning amendments and additions to the Penal Code, was submitted to the House of Representatives on 24 June 2016 and referred to the relevant committee a few days later. It included provisions on criminalising illicit enrichment before being withdrawn following a letter from the head of government dated 28 October 2021, according to the House of Representatives\u2019 legislative record.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At the time, Abdellatif Ouahbi, then Minister of Justice, explained that the draft was being withdrawn to allow its provisions to be reconsidered as part of a broader review of the Penal Code. The government presented the decision as an opportunity to revise the text, rather than an official abandonment of the principle of criminalising illicit enrichment. The immediate legislative outcome, nevertheless, was clear: the draft containing those provisions did not complete its passage towards adoption.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The issue continued to be raised through other parliamentary initiatives. In February 2024, the parliamentary group of the Justice and Development Party submitted a bill proposal concerning the prevention of illicit enrichment. This initiative confirms that the subject remained on the legislative agenda. It does not, however, demonstrate that a sufficient political agreement existed to adopt a specific legal formulation or that all parties were prepared to support the consequences of its enforcement.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The challenge facing the current government is therefore not simply to reaffirm its commitment to fighting corruption. It is to determine the legislative approach it will adopt, explain how it differs from previous attempts and address objections concerning the definition of the offence, the means of proving it and the legal safeguards available to those concerned.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ahmed El Abadi opens a legislative front from within the majority<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mansouri\u2019s announcement coincided with a statement by Ahmed El Abadi, head of the parliamentary group of the Party of Progress and Socialism in the House of Representatives. He identified the adoption of a law on public integrity, including the criminalisation of conflicts of interest, as one of his group\u2019s priorities, alongside combating rent-seeking, corruption and bribery, and strengthening accountability. He also stressed that his party\u2019s move into the governing majority would not prevent it from scrutinising the government, holding it to account, proposing legislation or introducing amendments.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The significance of this position is partly linked to the party\u2019s new place within the majority. It should not, however, be interpreted as proof that the government\u2019s components have reached a final agreement on the details of a future law. In his published statement, El Abadi identified a political and legislative priority but did not specify whether his group would submit its own bill, press the government to prepare draft legislation or seek to pursue both routes.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The distinction between these options is practical. A parliamentary initiative allows the group to place a specific legislative proposal before Parliament. A government bill places greater responsibility on the executive and requires coordination among the relevant departments. In either case, adoption will depend on the text itself and the positions taken by parliamentary groups, not simply on the inclusion of the issue among declared priorities.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Party of Progress and Socialism\u2019s participation in the governing majority also places its position in a different setting from the period when it was in opposition. Advocating the criminalisation of conflicts of interest and combating rent-seeking and corruption now requires the party to explain how these demands will be translated into legislation and procedures, while preserving its ability to scrutinise the government it helps support. El Abadi himself stated that political support does not eliminate his group\u2019s legislative and oversight responsibilities.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">At present, the published information is insufficient to establish that the components of the majority have agreed on a common formulation for criminalising illicit enrichment or on a timetable for adopting a law on conflicts of interest. A distinction must therefore be maintained between publicly expressed political convergence and legislative consensus, which can only be confirmed once a specific text has been presented, examined and put to a vote.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">Integrity Authority recommendations outline what the legislation needs to address<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The work of the National Authority for Integrity, Prevention and the Fight Against Corruption provides an important institutional reference for assessing the reform. The Authority has called for a comprehensive legislative framework to regulate, prevent and address conflicts of interest, rather than relying on general provisions that do not sufficiently specify how such situations should be prevented or managed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The elements raised include defining the categories of people covered, identifying prohibited situations, requiring declarations of interests and the reporting of conflicts, and obliging the person concerned to abstain from making or participating in a decision connected to a private interest. They also include designating an authority responsible for administering these mechanisms, granting it powers of oversight and verification, and establishing penalties for violations.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This approach goes beyond punishing misconduct after it has occurred. An effective conflicts-of-interest framework also needs preventive mechanisms capable of identifying risks before they result in an administrative decision, a public contract or the granting of an advantage that could raise suspicions of favouritism. Requiring officials to declare their assets is not enough if there are no clear mechanisms for examining those declarations, comparing them with available information or addressing situations in which abstention is required.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The strengthening of mandatory asset declarations announced by the head of government also requires clarification: which individuals are covered, when declarations must be filed, how their accuracy will be checked, which authority will supervise the process and what legal consequences will follow an incomplete or inaccurate declaration. An asset declaration is a tool for transparency and oversight, but it does not by itself establish the legitimacy of every increase in wealth. Conversely, the absence of an apparent increase does not necessarily rule out a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The proposed criminalisation of disclosing information to obtain advantages also requires a precise legal definition. The legislation will need to identify the information covered, the status of the person who accesses it through their duties, the prohibited uses and the evidence needed to establish a link between the disclosure and the advantage sought. The law must distinguish the unlawful exploitation of information from its exchange or publication within a legitimate legal framework.<\/p>\n<h2 style=\"text-align: justify;\">From public integrity to the capacity to change practices<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Mansouri\u2019s programme was not confined to integrity in public life. She announced that financial transfers to the regions would reach at least 12 billion dirhams annually from 2027, alongside the extension of programme contracts between the state and the regions, linked to targets for employment, investment and reducing territorial disparities. She also pledged to accelerate implementation of the administrative deconcentration charter and make the new generation of integrated territorial development programmes a central government priority.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">On prices, she announced the creation of regional companies and professional platforms for collecting and marketing food products under a unified set of specifications, with the aim of bringing food closer to consumers and limiting price increases. These measures form part of a broader direction outlined by the head of government: moving from expanding social coverage to improving service quality, from measuring investment by volume to assessing its returns, and from multiplying programmes to ensuring their integration.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">These economic commitments also require measurable indicators. Increasing financial transfers to the regions does not, on its own, guarantee a reduction in disparities unless it is accompanied by clear responsibilities, quality project delivery and mechanisms for monitoring and accountability. Likewise, creating marketing platforms does not automatically lower prices. Their operating arrangements, relationships with producers and intermediaries, transport and storage costs, competition conditions and the extent to which any savings are reflected in the final price paid by consumers will all need to be clarified.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">This economic dimension intersects with public integrity at a practical point: the management of public funds, contracts, advantages and relationships between officials and economic actors. Advanced regionalisation, the management of development programmes and the opening of new marketing channels create responsibilities and decisions that require clear rules to prevent conflicts of interest, as well as oversight mechanisms capable of detecting and addressing violations. This does not imply that irregularities exist in the announced programmes; it means that the quality of the rules governing their implementation is part of what will determine their success.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Following the presentation of the programme, the government must now produce the provisions that will translate these commitments into enforceable rules. The illicit-enrichment issue remains particularly tied to a legislative process that ended with the withdrawal of Draft Law No. 10.16. Conflicts of interest, meanwhile, call for a preventive, supervisory and punitive framework that goes beyond merely affirming a constitutional principle.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Party of Progress and Socialism has announced that it intends to advocate legislation on public integrity and the criminalisation of conflicts of interest from its new position within the governing majority. The practical weight of this commitment will become clearer once the form and content of its initiative are known and the willingness of its partners to support it becomes evident.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The government\u2019s announcement does not mean that legislative reform has already been achieved, just as previous setbacks do not prove that the new attempt is destined to fail. What is established is that the issue has returned to the list of declared commitments, and that the government and Parliament now face a legislative process requiring precise provisions, agreement on safeguards for their implementation and mechanisms through which officials can be held accountable for complying with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Criminalising Illicit Enrichment and Preventing Conflicts of Interest: The New Government Programme Faces the Test of Legislation and Implementation Fatima Zahra Mansouri\u2019s announcement before the two chambers of Parliament on Monday, 19 October 2026, that the government intends to criminalise illicit enrichment and penalise conflicts of interest was not simply another item on a list [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,43,42,41,76],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-africa","category-asia-americas","category-europe-russia","category-middle-east","category-the-maghreb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5058,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5056\/revisions\/5058"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/diplomatique.ma\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}