Moroccan firm chocs up 200,000-euro bill

(RABAT) - While most company executives are anxiously cutting costs in austere times, one Moroccan CEO happily oversaw chocolate purchases worth 35,000 euros last year, a local newspaper reported on Thursday.

Maroclear, a partly state-owned firm headed by Fathia Bennis which monitors the stock exchange, spent 2.3 million dirhams (206,000 euros) on chocolate in the last seven years, according to a report obtained by Arabic daily Al-Akhbar.

Bennis, who supported the ruling Justice and Development Party (PJD) during its victorious 2011 election campaign, confirmed the claims, but defended her company's sweet tooth.

"Every Christmas we receive chocolate presents," she told the paper.

"So don't we have the right to buy chocolate?"

Maroclear's former financial director, Ali Benmiloudi, also confirmed the figures in the report were authentic, adding that the company had bought five tonnes of chocolate in seven years.

The report was carried out by corporate social responsibility firm Vigeo, which the paper cited as saying the purchases were made from luxury chocolate stores in Casablanca.