<p>This article examines how Morocco’s constitutional principle of the correlation between responsibility and the rendering of accounts can be operationalized through a temporal-structural model of accountability. Responding to the risk that audit publication may remain disconnected from answerability, correction, and verified closure, the article combines contemporary accountability scholarship, comparative Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) principles, Moroccan constitutional and statutory sources, official published materials of the Cour des comptes, and a carefully bounded Qur’anic ethical vocabulary. The argument is that Morocco’s accountability gap should not be reduced to political will or legal sanctions alone. It is also a design problem: responsibility can drift over time when response windows, implementation milestones, and closure decisions are weak; and it can dissolve structurally when ownership, evidence, forums, consequences, and learning are fragmented. The article therefore proposes a practical accountability cycle consisting of entrustment, action, recording, disclosure, questioning, judgment, corrective action, and verified closure. Empirically, the article uses official documentary evidence rather than independent fieldwork or a recommendation-level panel dataset. It draws on the Cour des comptes' <CitationRef CitationID="CR8">2023a</CitationRef>, <CitationRef CitationID="CR9">b</CitationRef>-<CitationRef CitationID="CR10">2024a</CitationRef>, <CitationRef CitationID="CR11">b</CitationRef> annual report materials and the 2024–2025 materials published in January 2026, including official aggregate data on judgments on accounts, discipline budgétaire et financière, referrals with presumed criminal character, recovery of funds, corrective measures, and recommendation follow-up. The article clarifies that the aggregate implementation rates reported in the press releases are not the same as the narrower 2024–2025 breakdown for 300 recommendations issued by the Court itself. The evidence is therefore treated as an official diagnostic anchor, not as causal proof of each proposed gap. Conceptually, the article situates the framework in accountability theory, INTOSAI principles, Islamic governance literature, MENA governance scholarship, and Morocco’s constitutional and legal architecture. The Qur’anic concepts of amanah, hisab, shahadah, and ‘adl are used as design principles—stewardship, traceability, truthful evidence, and proportional justice—rather than as direct legal rules. The contribution is both theoretical and policy-oriented: it shows how a culturally resonant ethical vocabulary can enrich, but not replace, constitutional and administrative law in designing accountable public governance.</p>

Linking Responsibility to Accountability: A Qur’anic Temporal-Structural Lens on Morocco’s Court of Accounts and the Theory–Practice Gap

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发表日期：

2026年7月22日

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Madani Ahmiddouch,
Abdelghni El Amoumri

摘要

This article examines how Morocco’s constitutional principle of the correlation between responsibility and the rendering of accounts can be operationalized through a temporal-structural model of accountability. Responding to the risk that audit publication may remain disconnected from answerability, correction, and verified closure, the article combines contemporary accountability scholarship, comparative Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) principles, Moroccan constitutional and statutory sources, official published materials of the Cour des comptes, and a carefully bounded Qur’anic ethical vocabulary. The argument is that Morocco’s accountability gap should not be reduced to political will or legal sanctions alone. It is also a design problem: responsibility can drift over time when response windows, implementation milestones, and closure decisions are weak; and it can dissolve structurally when ownership, evidence, forums, consequences, and learning are fragmented. The article therefore proposes a practical accountability cycle consisting of entrustment, action, recording, disclosure, questioning, judgment, corrective action, and verified closure. Empirically, the article uses official documentary evidence rather than independent fieldwork or a recommendation-level panel dataset. It draws on the Cour des comptes' 2023a, b-2024a, b annual report materials and the 2024–2025 materials published in January 2026, including official aggregate data on judgments on accounts, discipline budgétaire et financière, referrals with presumed criminal character, recovery of funds, corrective measures, and recommendation follow-up. The article clarifies that the aggregate implementation rates reported in the press releases are not the same as the narrower 2024–2025 breakdown for 300 recommendations issued by the Court itself. The evidence is therefore treated as an official diagnostic anchor, not as causal proof of each proposed gap. Conceptually, the article situates the framework in accountability theory, INTOSAI principles, Islamic governance literature, MENA governance scholarship, and Morocco’s constitutional and legal architecture. The Qur’anic concepts of amanah, hisab, shahadah, and ‘adl are used as design principles—stewardship, traceability, truthful evidence, and proportional justice—rather than as direct legal rules. The contribution is both theoretical and policy-oriented: it shows how a culturally resonant ethical vocabulary can enrich, but not replace, constitutional and administrative law in designing accountable public governance.