Rabat – Three Moroccan opposition parties have demanded the creation of a parliamentary inquiry commission to investigate potential fraud and manipulation of the national energy market.
The request comes at the initiative of the Popular Movement (MP), the Progress and Socialism Party (PPS), and the Justice and Development Party (PJD).
The opposition parties echoed concerns about the lack of transparency and potential fraud practiced by some companies involved in importing Russian energy products to manipulate the national market.
“Through this initiative, we seek to dispel the doubts surrounding this affair especially since the subject is closely linked to Morocco’s energy security energy bill, inflation, the purchasing power of Moroccans, and the tax revenue,” the opposition parties stressed.
According to the joint communique, the committee seeks to contribute to the establishment of “adequate measures either to reassure public opinion or to sanction the parties involved.”
Many have raised concerns about potential fraud in the energy sector.
Abdelkader Taher, a member of the Socialist Union of Popular Forces (USF), echoed the same frustrations earlier this year by calling on the Moroccan government to open an investigation into what he described as “manipulation” of fuel prices by energy companies operating in the Moroccan market.
The MP accused some companies of changing the documentation of their Russian imports and passing their products off as imported from the Gulf countries in order to set higher prices.
The Wall Street Journal similarly reported on Russian products imported by Morocco and other North African countries, raising concerns that Russian oil was being blended with other countries’ products and re-exported.
“That process disguises the ultimate origin of the products and complicates Western efforts to remove Russian fossil fuels from their economies,” the outlet wrote.
New data shared by Bloomberg in March shows that Morocco is among the countries that are contributing to increasing Russian diesel exports amid the EU embargo on Moscow.
Officials have acknowledged Morocco’s imports of Russian gas.
Last month, Morocco’s Minister of Economy Nadia Fettah Alaoui said that Russian gas imports increased by 13% in the period between early January to February 27.
Soaring energy prices and food products have sparked a nationwide uproar, with many unions calling for national protests and strikes to condemn the situation.
Amid government pledges to mitigate the crisis, prices of such essential products remain out of the reach of many Moroccans whose purchasing power has been harmed.
Diesel prices continue to range between MAD 12 and MAD 15, while prices of goods like onions, tomatoes, and potatoes exceed MAD 12.
