Morocco Names New Antitrust Head

Morocco’s King Mohammed VI has appointed Ahmed Rahhou to replace Driss Guerraoui as president of Morocco’s Competition Council, a move that is widely interpreted as designed to deal with recent reports of murky dealings in Morocco’s hydrocarbon sector, reported Morocco World News.

A statement from the royal cabinet noted that the appointment comes after the submission of a report by an “ad-hoc committee” the King had appointed to assess the functioning of the competition council.

The committee, which King Mohammed VI appointed in 2020, submitted its report to the monarch earlier this month.

Among its many tasks, the ad-hoc committee notably investigated reports of administrative malfeasance and corruption in the way the competition council dealt with “possible agreements in the hydrocarbon sector.”

The committee ensured the compliance with laws and procedures relating to “the functioning of the Competition Council, the course of the litigation proceedings, and obvious deterioration in the climate of deliberations,” according to the royal cabinet.

The King ordered the transmission of the recommendations of the ad-hoc Committee to the Head of Government to address the inaccuracies of the legal work and to strengthen the impartiality and transparency.

The report primarily seeks to consolidate the council’s vocation as an independent body contributing to fostering good governance, the rule of law in the economic sphere, and consumer protection.