Dos ministros marroquíes no dan de alta a sus empleados en la Seguridad Social
A scandal is raging these days in neighbouring Morocco, with its press, other social media and parliament being in the spotlight. It concerns two government ministers who omitted to declare their secretaries to Social Security. The two ministers are lawyers by profession, one with a firm in Casablanca and the other in Agadir. To make matters worse, one is none other than the Minister of Labour, the young Mohamed Amekraz, whose primary mission is to ensure the application of labour laws, and the other is the remarkable and honourable Mustapha Ramid, Minister of State responsible for Human Rights and former Minister of Justice in the Benkiran Government.
Both belong to the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD): Mustapha Ramid is one of the prominent barons of the Islamist party and Mohamed Amekraz is the general secretary of the youth of this party which preaches justice and development, both of them speaking out against "atahakum", arbitrariness and wilfulness.
The first scandal came to light some ten days ago following the death of a secretary who worked for twenty-four years in the office of the Minister of Human Rights without ever having been declared to the Social Security authorities during that time.
In the face of the wave of repulsion in the social media, people close to the minister Ramid and the Islamist trend -differentiating between Muslim and Islamist- some of them from the same law firm, even apparently the father of the deceased, highlighted Ramid's kind face as a good man, emphasizing his generosity to his staff and, especially, to the deceased. They emphasize that when she became ill, he offered his financial support and it was she who refused to register with the Social Security despite Mr. Ramid's insistence. In the media they reply that the issue is not related to the generosity and goodness of people, but simply to the application of the laws in force, above all those who must ensure that they are applied and respected.
Mohamed Amekraz, the labour minister, also failed to declare an employee who worked in his law firm in Agadir for several years. According to the Moroccan press, there is also the case of an employee who worked between 2009 and 2010 without being declared and returned to the firm in 2016 with a salary of 1500 dirhams (140 euros). The case takes on greater relevance since in his capacity as Minister of Employment he is also the president of the Social Security Administration Council. In this role, he appeared on Wednesday June 17 before the Social Affairs Committee of Parliament's House of Councillors, during which he launched harsh criticism of employers who refuse to declare their employees to the social security system. Two or three days after the Ramid scandal erupted, his fellows in government, legal and party circles rushed to register five of the employees of his firm in Agadir with the social security system on June 19.
The impact of these two cases on the image of the Othmani government in Moroccan public opinion, as well as in international forums, will undoubtedly be very great and credibility will be seriously damaged.
In spite of all the justifications put forward, Moroccan public opinion is not convinced. It is difficult to understand why two jurist members of the government who break the law remain in government and do not assume both the consequences of these events and their political responsibilities. To ignore what happened would mean for many that other members of the government would be allowed to violate the laws that the same government dictates with impunity. So serious would be the precedent, some say, that it would be the case that a minister such as the Finance Minister, for example, would take the liberty of not paying his tax contribution and at the same time would spare no effort in sanctioning the rest of the contributors to persuade them to fulfil their civic duty which he fails to fulfil.
At the level of international forums, it will be very delicate for Morocco, even embarrassing, if Minister of State Ramid, with his Human Rights portfolio, successfully and credibly exposes before international bodies dealing with Human Rights the achievements made in Morocco in terms of these noble principles, offering a good image of Morocco for the simple reason that this image is damaged. On the other hand, for the Minister of Labour, during the meetings of the International Labour Organisation in which delegations composed of employers, trade unions and Ministers of Labour from all over the world participate, it will no longer be easy for him to chair the Moroccan tripartite delegation (employers, trade unions and government) to discuss labour laws and social security for the benefit of the world's workers because it is not credible.
Saadeddine El Othmani is facing a delicate issue of great moral importance and political significance. It is an embarrassing situation both for him as head of the government and for a political party of Islamic reference that preaches justice and development within a framework of Islamic morality.
The image of the PJD is greatly damaged before the Moroccan public opinion. The citizens are realising the great difference between what the Islamists say and what they do. They apply the opposite of what they preach. Many Moroccans are drawing negative conclusions and believe that they are facing a demagogic, hypocritical and double standard discourse.
