After the Royal instructions requesting the opening of a judicial investigation and the acceleration of procedures so that the inhabitants of the "Firdaouss" project can benefit from administrative documents and their property, well-informed sources indicate that about twenty civil servants who were in charge of managing local affairs in Khouribga since 2003 have been questioned by the Judicial Police.

Within the framework of the preliminary investigation, the contractor in charge of the construction of the project, as well as the staff of the city's technical services, were also summoned to be heard by the services of the national brigade. The ongoing instructions concern administrative authorisations, engineering, documents issued to buyers before the launch of the residential project and all parties involved in the implementation of the said project.

The same sources indicate that high-ranking civil servants still in office in other regions of the country should be suspended from their duties, after having been associated in one way or another with this file when they were active in Khouribga.

It should be remembered that His Majesty the King, on the occasion of his last visit to Khouribga, had given his instructions for the necessary measures to be taken to allow the residents of the complex, who meet the required conditions, to quickly have the administrative documents authorising them to make full use of their property, and to initiate the necessary actions for the completion of the tranches of the project that have not yet been finalised. The Sovereign had also ordered the opening of a judicial investigation under the supervision of the competent authority of the prosecutor in order to determine responsibilities and the application of the law.

The details of the file of the "Firdaouss" housing project go back to mid-2003 when a company named (Alliance for Road Surfacing Works and Real Estate Development) benefited from a plot of land belonging to the Makhzen domain, within the framework of the special investment procedure targeting State-owned land, and built a residential complex composed of 57 buildings. But, in 2005, the project was amended and 5 additional buildings were added, totalling 456 apartments and 114 shops and garages for cars, without having obtained the necessary authorisations or the approval of the construction plans.

When the company requested the certificate of conformity and the occupancy permit for the residential complex, three services (the province, the municipality of Khouribga and the Urban Agency) considered that the project was illegal and asked the project owner to respect what had been stipulated in the specifications and the sales contract, knowing that the contentious points had been authorised by the same services.

After the latest Royal instructions, a statement from the Ministry of the Interior indicated that since the start of work in 2003, the project has experienced disputes due to violations recorded during the various stages of the project. Indeed, in accordance with the requirements of the first licence issued to the developer, the project was to include residential units, shops as well as a hotel establishment.

The various checks carried out by the General Inspectorate of Territorial Administration of the Ministry of the Interior recorded a large number of serious violations, linked to non-compliance with the laws and regulations in force in terms of urban planning. The Ministry of the Interior's statement added that due to this conflict, the residents of the complex have not been able, to this day, to obtain the land ownership documents or benefit from the final connection to the water and electricity network. Could the ongoing investigations bring down some high-ranking civil servants in the city of Khouribga?