فاس نيوز ميديا جريدة الكترونية جهوية تعنى بشؤون و أخبار جهة فاس مكناس – متجددة على مدار الساعة
The Minister of Justice, Abdellatif Ouahbi, has strongly criticised hoteliers who demand marriage certificates from Moroccans wishing to enter their establishments, stressing that ‘this is against the law’ and that ‘those who ask for this document at the hotel are breaking the law’.
Speaking this Tuesday during the oral question session in the House of Councillors, Ouahbi said, ‘When you ask a citizen for a document that affects their private life, if it is not provided for by law, -for example a woman who is angry or in a dispute with her husband who goes to a hotel and is asked if she lives in the same town-, be aware that there is no legal basis for this’. ‘Those who ask for these documents should be prosecuted’, he added.
His statements on this issue, which is the subject of debate between conservatives and modernists, come on the heels of sharp criticism by the Minister of what he described as ‘overburdening Moroccans with numerous unnecessary administrative documents’.
He considered that ‘documents requested by the administration should be obtained directly from the administration concerned, without being requested from citizens’.
In this vein, the Minister of Justice questioned certain administrations that persist in asking citizens for life certificates, saying that since his arrival, he has modernised the way in which certain Ministry of Justice documents can be requested via the Internet without the need to visit administrations or courts.
‘A large number of documents have no value, the most fascinating and absurd being when you stand in front of an administration and you are asked for a life certificate, that I have never understood,’ he quipped.
The former Secretary General of the Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) said that he did not understand why citizens were being asked for criminal record certificates, adding that the documents should be requested directly from the administrations and institutions concerned, without imposing this burden on citizens.
He stressed that more should be done to simplify administrative procedures, noting that one million requests for criminal record certificates were made by mobile phone.
He added: ‘There is a medieval logic in certain administrations, and when I arrived at the Ministry of Justice, I saw a queue of people waiting to obtain a criminal record certificate, only to hand it in again at the Ministry of Justice in order to take a competition’.
He indicated that other procedures, such as paying fines, should be able to be carried out at the various bank branches, without citizens having to go to the courts to pay them.
