Mohammed VI ordena investigar disfunciones del Consejo de la Competencia

King Mohammed VI of Morocco ordered a commission of inquiry into the "dysfunctions" of the Competition Council following the confusion generated by the submission of his report on anti-competitive practices in the field of hydrocarbons. 

A government source told Efe that the Alaouite monarch has not taken a stand on the merits - the obstacles to competition by some large distributors - but "on internal dysfunctions, since the monarch is only a referee". 

The large distributors, including Afriqia, owned by the powerful Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, Aziz Ajanuch, very close to the King, were in the sights of the Competition Council for alleged illegal practices of entente on final prices, which according to the Council deserved a large fine. 

A statement from the Royal Cabinet explained that the president of the Competition Council, Driss Guerraoui -the same appointed by Mohammed VI-, submitted two reports to the King Alaoui on this matter, with five days of difference and with contradictions between them; and, in parallel, he was accused by members of the same council of irregular practices. 

This led the Moroccan monarch to appoint a committee of inquiry not on the practices of the oil companies but on the functioning of the Council, and such is the importance he attaches to this committee that the presidents of the parliamentary chambers, the Constitutional Court, the Court of Auditors and the governor of the Central Bank will sit on it. 

The source insisted that the Moroccan monarch, "as guarantor of the good functioning of the institutions", and to ensure that "the constitutional institutions work in serenity and without political pressure", ordered this investigative committee, whose work is not dated. 

Meanwhile, the president of the Competition Council and its members, even those who are opposed to him, remain in their posts until the results of the inquiry are presented.