Morocco's Corruption Perceptions Index: A Mixed Bag of Progress and Challenges

The latest annual report for 2025 from the National Authority for Integrity, Prevention of Corruption, and Fight Against Corruption reveals that Morocco continues to hold a middling position in the Arab and African realms regarding the Corruption Perceptions Index. Despite a slight improvement over the past year, the report cautions that the pace of progress remains sluggish and does not yet indicate a profound transformation in the effectiveness of integrity, transparency, and accountability systems. According to the report, Morocco has secured the 8th position among Arab nations, advancing one place compared to the previous year's ranking and surpassing the Arab average of 34 points by five points. However, this advancement occurs within a context where several Gulf countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Jordan, and Kuwait, continue to dominate the regional rankings. Morocco's position illustrates a moderate standing within the Arab world. On a Maghreb level, the report notes that Morocco shares the top spot with Tunisia, both countries receiving the same score, while it surpasses Algeria, Mauritania, and Libya in the rankings. In the African context, Morocco has moved up from 20th to 15th place out of 54 countries, exceeding the African average of 32 points by seven points. These results reflect a relatively better continental and regional positioning, although their analytical value should be interpreted within an African and regional context characterized by generally weak improvement rates and limited progress in integrity indicators, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa, which have not recorded substantial developments since 2012, according to Transparency International. The report emphasizes that while Morocco's regional and continental advancements are significant, they should not overshadow the crucial question regarding the quality of this improvement. It remains uncertain whether these changes signal a profound internal shift in the effectiveness of public policies and institutional performance or if they merely result from a slow development of the comparative environment. It suggests that evaluating this trajectory requires moving beyond mere numerical ranking comparisons to analyze the sources of the index and its long-term trends. In reviewing Morocco's trajectory over recent decades, the report highlights that the Kingdom's performance in the Corruption Perceptions Index has experienced an unstable path, marked by alternating phases of improvement and decline. From 2005 to 2008, Morocco saw a trend of stability at low levels, followed by a more positive phase from 2009 to 2018, coinciding with the adoption of the 2011 constitution and the launch of the national anti-corruption strategy in 2015, during which it achieved its highest score of 43 points in 2018, ranking 73rd globally. However, the period from 2019 to 2024 has reflected a continuous decline, reducing Morocco's score to 37 points and its global ranking to 99th. The report indicates that this phase has revealed one of the most significant paradoxes of the integrity system in Morocco; on one hand, there are important normative institutional and legislative reforms, and on the other hand, the limited reflection of these reforms on public perceptions of the effectiveness of anti-corruption efforts. This indicates that the challenge is no longer just about producing new texts or establishing mechanisms but about translating these into tangible impacts that citizens and economic actors can feel within the administration, economy, and public space.

As reported by goud.ma.