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100 billion dirhams outside the economic cycle: Wahbi raises alarm on bad debts and judicial expertise imbalances
In a context marked by increasing challenges related to the effectiveness of the judicial system and its impact on the national economy, Abdellatif Wahbi, the Minister of Justice, revealed alarming data regarding the volume of funds circulating outside the official economic cycle, resulting from what he described as problematic debts, which have reached approximately 100 billion dirhams.
During a meeting of the Justice, Legislation, and Human Rights Committee in the House of Representatives, dedicated to a detailed discussion of Bill No. 01.24 concerning judicial experts, Wahbi clarified that this vast financial sum is being traded through improper channels, noting that “fraudsters are circulating this money,” referring to practices that exploit legal and judicial loopholes. He added that the authorities have initiated practical measures, including a meeting with the Governor of Bank Al-Maghrib, aimed at putting an end to these phenomena and moving towards “stopping and eliminating these practices.”
The government official noted that injecting this money back into the official economic cycle could have had significant positive effects, not only in terms of investment but also in financing major projects, emphasizing that its investment could have provided funds sufficient to organize global events akin to an additional World Cup.
In diagnosing the existing imbalances, the minister addressed the issue of judicial expertise, relying on the orientations of the Court of Cassation, which acknowledges that the court does not have the authority to examine the validity of expertise when requested by one of the parties, limiting the judiciary’s intervention in assessing its content. He argued that this situation opens the door to conflicting expert opinions, as expertise and counter-expertise may ensue in a complex process that burdens litigants and directly impacts economic actors, particularly insurance companies and banking institutions.
In this context, Wahbi presented an example illustrating the magnitude of the issue, relating to a high-value property exploited for agricultural purposes despite being subject to a bank loan, where the beneficiaries continue to utilize it without meeting their obligations, even going so far as to re-parcel and preserve it after several years, benefiting from the sluggishness and complexities of procedures. According to the minister, this situation highlights how certain practices can lead to a significant worsening of bad debts.
The speaker asserted that the imbalance is not confined to enforcement but extends to the method of calculating debts themselves, which is not always done accurately, leading to unjust outcomes and encouraging improper behaviors within the system. He stated that this necessitates a comprehensive review of the judicial expertise system to achieve a delicate balance between the independence of experts and the need for their work to be subject to effective oversight.
Wahbi emphasized that judicial experts represent one of the most sensitive points within the justice system, considering their crucial role in guiding the course of cases, as they may indirectly influence the formulation of rulings. He attributed this influence to the technical nature of the cases presented, which forces judges to rely on specialized expertise that they do not possess intricate details of.
In light of these data, Wahbi acknowledged a certain leniency in handling experts, particularly on the part of the public prosecution, which complicates the issue further. He concluded that the challenge today lies in finding a legal and institutional framework that allows for the regulation and oversight of expert work, without infringing upon their independence or interfering in their jurisdictions, with the aim of enhancing litigant confidence and improving the business climate in the Kingdom.
