Rachid Hamouni, president of the Progress and Socialism group in the House of Representatives, sent a written question to Ahmed Bouari, Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests on the veracity of certain data conveyed by the National Association of Sheep and Goat Breeders (ANOC). In this critical period that Morocco is going through, transparency is demanded more than ever.
Against all predictions, precipitation did not make its long-awaited comeback. A persistent drought which impacts several sectors: in this case red meat. Concerned by this situation, Rachid Hamouni, the head of the Progress and Socialism group, recently sent a written question to Ahmed Bouari, Minister of Agriculture, Maritime Fisheries, Rural Development, Water and Forests on the veracity of certain data transported by ANOC.
In his missive, Hamouni recalls that ANOC is “ua professional organization linked to the Ministry of Agriculture through program contracts and important partnerships, both in terms of management and on a financial and professional level”. These partnerships include missions falling under the jurisdiction of public bodies, with the association supervising a network comprising thousands of stonecrop and goat breeders.
The ministry also entrusted this association with the responsibility of developing the red meat sector, preserving breeds, improving reproduction, training producers, contributing to the distribution of public aid to breeders, creating temporary markets for the sale of sacrificial sheep, and to manage the marking of sheep and goat heads, the association being a reference for data concerning the national herd.
Thus, given the essential roles that the supervisory ministry assigns to this professional organization, Hamouni raises certain concerns. According to the information available to the parliamentary deputy, and on which he requests verification from the ministry: certain people have inflated the number of heads of certain breeds in order to receive subsidies for livestock that does not really exist. If confirmed, Hamouni judges that this is a serious act, because it would constitute a falsification which would disrupt agricultural planning with considerable economic and social consequences.
-Other questions are also raised regarding the distribution of state support to breeders, and what could be perceived as dysfunctions, as well as concerns about managerial, financial and legal irregularities. Some breeder associations also complain of not having received the public aid to which they are entitled.
On this basis, Hamouni questions Ahmed Bouari on the details of the management and financial partnership between the ministry and ANOC, particularly with regard to any “direct or indirect mandate” for the management of public funds. The PPS deputy also questions the measures that the minister intends to take to rigorously verify the information circulating.
Ultimately, Hamouni returns to clarify the intentions of his questioning which in no way concerns the independence of the professional organization, on the other hand, it is the public and professional collaboration between the organization and the ministry which is targeted. .
