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Casablanca – While Morocco’s tourism sector is going through a serious economic crisis, the Tangier’s Regional Council of Tourism (CRT) has paid MAD 680,000 ($69,028) for designing its logo, generating outrage on social media.
Based on its financial report revealed on April 21, the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region’s CRT reported a series of contentious costs at its general assembly.
While the total expenses of the Council amounted to MAD 6.5 million ($659,831), designing the “Al-Shamal” logo cost more than MAD 680,000 ($69,028).
The shocking figures were announced during one of the council’s regular meetings on Thursday in a plush Tangier hotel. The meeting is reported to have concluded with, among other things, Council members renewing their trust in their president, Roquia Alaoui.
News of the large financial cost for a simple design while Morocco’s tourism sector and other industries still suffer from the far-reaching repercussions of the COVID crisis ignited a torrent of controversy on social media.
On both Facebook and Twitter, many commenters blamed the unreasonably lavish use of public funds on the leadership of the Tangier CRT.
While many took issue with the Council for what they branded as an irresponsible misallocation of public funds, others lambasted the Tangier-Al Hoceima-Tetouan region’s CRT for what they said is an unconscionable PR stunt.
In particular, the second group of critics lamented both the logo’s lack of innovative imagination and its failure to portray the cultural and socioeconomic variety of northern Morocco.
During their Thursday meeting, the Regional Tourism Council’s General Assembly notably approved the literary and financial reports for the years 2019, 2020, and 2021, as well as the auditor’s reports.
Following the leak of the Council’s financial report revealing the cost of the logo, Lawyer Mohamed El Ghalloussi, the president of the Moroccan Association for the Protection of Public Funds, called for an investigation into the finances of the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region’s CRT.
If it is true that the Council did indeed spend such stupendous amounts to simply design a logo rather than to invest in more substantial or impact-making projects, the lawyer argued, “they reflect, in essence, the continuance of the rent strategy that some public institutions employ by wasting and squandering public monies under a legal cover.”
Pointing out that the use of public funds should be subject to strict oversight, Al-Ghloussi called on the Supreme Court of Accounts to intervene to undertake an in-depth investigation into the finances of the Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region’s CRT.
He concluded, “There is no feasibility analysis indicating the extent to which the aforementioned council needs to spend those sums in what they have given to it, especially since the support it receives is specifically from environmental organizations and certain professional associations.”
