The Moroccan government has included pro-transparency commitments in its new two-year plan to combat corruption.
A pledge to develop a law on access to information is listed as measure number nine among 43 items.
Other proposals include asset declaration by top officials, whistle-blower protection, anti-graft classes in schools, and channels for the public to report graft and extortion by government officials. Graft destroys 2 percent of the gross domestic product according to a Reuters report.
“With this plan to prevent corruption and fight it, we enter a new stage of determination to achieve results in implementing this programme,” Public Sector Modernisation Minister Mohamed Saad El Alami told an Oct. 22 news conference, Reuters reported.
“It is difficult to gauge corruption’s cost as it is secret, but estimates put the loss to Morocco’s economy from this scourge at about 2 percent of the GDP,” said Alami. “Corruption saps our cultural and social values. It undermines the foundations and roots of our society.” Alami said the plan will start in earnest in early 2011 and last into the following year.
Filed under: What's New