Parliament held this Wednesday, May 11, a joint plenary session of its two chambers devoted to the presentation of the activity report of the Court of Auditors for the years 2019 and 2020 that the First President of the Court of Auditors, Zineb El Adaoui exposed in front of the representatives of the Nation.
This meeting takes place in accordance with the provisions of article 148 of the Constitution which stipulates that “the Court of Auditors assists Parliament in areas of public finance control. Thereby, a presentation of the activities of the Court is presented by its First President before the Parliament. It is followed by a discussion”.
For Zineb El Adaoui “ it is an important step of which we are proud which contributes to implementing the principle of accountability and to deepening the public debate around the questions of public administration, deployment and evaluation of public policies and programs, as well as to propose means and alternatives capable of guaranteeing a positive impact on citizens, on investment and on employment “.
She confirmed that the Court of Auditors is working in close coordination with the Public Prosecutor’s Office to activate all the legal mechanisms in order to bring before the Presidency all cases of corruption and waste of public funds and to take the necessary measures as well as to activate all the mechanisms provided for by law in this regard.
In this regard, she stated that “ the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Auditors sent a total of 29 files to the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation during the period from 2019 to the end of April 2022 “. In addition, six files due to insufficient evidence were not retained. Zineb El Adaoui further pointed out that “the Court of Auditors seeks to adopt an effective and successful punitive policy that takes into account a balance in judicial practice between the various violations that require accountability.
In the area of auditing and drawing up of accounts for services provided by chartered accountants, the financial courts rendered, during the same period, a total of 636 judgments and decisions, and declared, at first instance , a deficit of 209,711,340.42 dirhams, following an audit and investigation of a total of 11,738 accounts.
With regard to the budgetary and financial discipline control mission, El Adaoui indicated that the financial jurisdictions issued, between 2019 and the end of April 2022, a total of 464 decisions and judgments and imposed fines totaling 10,603,700 dirhams, in addition to the amounts to be returned, reaching 17,077,225.93 dirhams and which correspond to the losses suffered by public bodies, due to the various offenses committed.
Zineb El Adaoui pointed out, in this regard, that the enforceable copies of the judgments and decisions of the financial courts, after having acquired the authority of res judicata, are sent to the General Treasury of the Kingdom, in order to recover the amounts relating to these decisions. The Court is driven in this by the desire to exercise all of these powers and to implement the principle linking responsibility to accountability, she continued.
With regard to missions relating to the management control and evaluation of public programs and projects as well as the control of the use of public funds, which took up most of the report of the Court of Auditors, El Adaoui said that this document took into account the responses and comments expressed by the heads of the organizations and sectors that were audited.
Observations relating to management appear in the report, whereas those liable to engage the responsibility of certain directors and managers have been included, in accordance with the principles of the presumption of innocence, in separate reports, in order to refer them to the prosecutors near the financial courts, she noted, stressing that these cases can lead to administrative sanctions, disciplinary measures or criminal sanctions.
