Rabat - Morocco’s Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane reportedly revealed on Monday, during a meeting with youth party officials, that King Mohammed VI asked him to review ministers’ pensions, according to news website Alyaoum24.
Rabat – Morocco’s Prime Minister Abdelilah Benkirane reportedly revealed on Monday, during a meeting with youth party officials, that King Mohammed VI asked him to review ministers’ pensions, according to news website Alyaoum24.
The same source added that during the meeting, Benkirane expressed his disagreement with the current status of ministers’ pensions, adding that the issue would be objectively solved.
The issue of ministers’ pensions has caused an uproar among Moroccans. Last December, Charafat Afilal, Minister Delegate to the Minister of Energy, made a statement on local news channel Al Oula’s TV show “Dayf Al Oula,” defending pensions allocated to Moroccan ministers and parliamentarians.
The statement stirred an ongoing debate on social media in Morocco regarding pensions received by ministers and MPs. Many question whether ministers and MPs deserve to receive a monthly retirement of up to MAD 35,000 and 10,000, respectively, at the end of their mandates, while civil servants in several government sectors receive less than MAD 3,000 after 40 years of service.
Last January, Benkirane suggested introducing a new decree governing the pensions and compensation of government ministers and MPs.