By force of circumstance and a certain mentality, the first words that come to mind as soon as one is required to perform some administrative formalities are: "Cool! This is the time or never to be zen." If for some administrations serving the citizen, the improvement of services is quite perceptible—the national identity card and the passport are rare illustrations of this—there are others that, already lagging behind for a long time, still cannot manage to get up to standard. If, for example, you are required to trade your old driving licence for the "new" biometric one, prepare yourself for a real obstacle course. If, furthermore, you reside in Mohammedia, the ordeal will unfortunately only be greater. The new Highway Code has been in force for more than a year already. The steps to change one's old driving licence must therefore be carried out at the Mining Service and Registration Centre of the Regional Directorate of Equipment and Transport of the place where one is supposed to reside.

The one in Mohammedia, located on Avenue des Forces Armées Royales, which is never empty, has the following opening hours: 8:30 am to 3:00 pm. Also, for any formality to be carried out (licence, vehicle registration document, etc.), one must expect a long wait before seeing one's requests succeed. Last Wednesday, to be able to submit a file for the renewal of the driving licence, in the best-case scenario, the wait was about an hour and a half. Then, the citizen was told to come back next Monday for the photo, a technical breakdown being the cause of the change in schedule. Just think! We only have the Ministry of Equipment and Transport as a sole concern. To carry out this imposed procedure, one might as well ask for two or even three days of leave. Moreover, the Mining Service and Registration Centre of the Regional Directorate of Equipment and Transport of Mohammedia has, in total, only one camera for a whole world of applicants. It is a shameful and unacceptable malfunction for a department whose fiscal and financial revenues are among the most important. In short, upon leaving, you will have been given in exchange the most provisional white card valid for 60 days, which, rest assured, will be extended for a second period or even a third before obtaining the holy grail in some six months if one is being very optimistic.

Even by limiting the criticisms to the administrative sphere alone, one would be tempted to wonder about this lack of rigour which amounts to a real insult to the Moroccan citizen. The Ministry of Equipment and Transport has imposed on Moroccans a copy-paste of the Highway Code, as modern as can be, where it has instituted a points-based licence for upgrading road control without putting in place the necessary structures. One might as well adapt the Swiss Highway Code to the Kalahari. Moreover, the Moroccan citizen has never asked to change their driving licence. It will cost them, to trade it, some six hundred dirhams between the various taxes (2 payment slips in different places), medical visits, paperwork, photos, and all other mobilisations that go with it. If one adds to the absence of a real reception structure that must accompany this little Moroccan-style revolution, the zeal that accompanies this "regularisation of the situation," one can explode in the most peaceful way in the world, while the ministry in question, with half a century of delay, restructures itself at our expense and without the slightest regard. Surely, after a quick tour of the Mining Service, the desire to become a certified pedestrian will itch us. We understand then why the outgoing minister Karim Ghellab quickly found himself a new job, the speaker's chair in this case. The incoming one, in any case, will have his work cut out for him. What will he have in store for us?

Let us hope that he will not grant the lucrative contract without a call for tenders like his predecessor.