Address of Chairperson of Thematic Working Group in charge of Evaluating the 2018-2021 National Administration Reform Plan Hafid Ouachak at Opening of the Colloquium on “Administration Reform – Comparative Practices: Views of Legislators and Experts”

Ms. Head of the Office of the Council of Europe in the Kingdom of Morocco,

Mr. Colleague, member of the Portuguese Parliament,

Mr. Head of the Cooperation Department at the EU delegation to Morocco,

Honorable experts and professors,

Dear colleagues,

Ladies and gentlemen,

I am honored to inaugurate the works of this colloquium, organized by the House of Representatives and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on administration reform in comparative practices, and the evaluation of such reform as seen by legislators, i.e., parliamentarians that elaborate laws, and experts, as they fall between legislators, enforcers and the administration, being ones that have the expertise and opinion we need.

I would like, first, to thank the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the European Union, who are ancient partners to Morocco, for their support to the House of Representatives. I would also like to laud the partnership and cooperation linking between us under the program of “Support to the development of the role of the Parliament in consolidating democracy in Morocco,” and other programs like the institutional twinning one, funded by the European Union.

I am also honored to welcome our colleague, Mr. Luis Leite Ramos, a member of the Portuguese Parliament and professors and experts from friendly countries and the Moroccan University.

As you are aware, the evaluation of public policies is an essential prerogative of the Moroccan Parliament, as enacted by the Constitution adopted by the Moroccan people in 2011, which enlarged the scope of prerogatives of the Parliament and consolidated the institutional democratic practice.

After the achievement realized by the House of Representatives since 2015 in the processes of evaluating public policies, which culminated in recommendations and propositions to improve these policies, the House launched, at the start of the ongoing legislative term, three evaluation operations related to the Green Morocco Plan, the water policy, and the 2018-2021 National Administration Reform Plan. The latter is, today, the center of focus of this colloquium, taking place few days after the symposium organized by the House, on March 18, on the same theme, with the participation of several constitutional institutions, civil organizations and national experts.

By organizing this colloquium, the House intends to explore the international practices, especially the ones of our European partners, and to interact with experts from friendly countries to develop, deepen, and render our reforms further efficient.

Ladies and gentlemen,

I do not need to recall the importance of the public administrative service to the economic, social, and cultural dynamics, which imposes putting it always at the heart of the reform to keep pace with the social and economic needs and grant it the confidence of citizens.

The said need and concern have always been a motivation to us in the House of Representatives to include administration reform in the first evaluation operation in the ongoing legislative term, intending to identify the impact, effect, and extent of this reform, as well as the requirements for its deepening, in its various dimensions: the performance and response to the aspirations of citizens, and its spacial stretch through concretizing administrative decentralization.

There is no doubt that this will enhance the confidence of citizens in public services and institutions, which is a lever of mobilization to address the significant challenges of the reforms in our country, led by His Majesty King Mohammed VI, may God assist him.

It is also a certainty that the transparency of administrative operations and the simplification of their procedure guarantee the fundamental rights of citizens, i.e., the rights to equality before the administration, transparency, access to information, and obtaining documents. These remain core criteria in creating a good business environment and gaining the trust of partners, economic actors, and investors.

Ladies and gentlemen,

To keep pace with the major reforms that our country is leading, we must lay the foundations for a modern citizen administration that meets the requirements of our times. In this regard, we recall what His Majesty King Mohammed VI reiterated in his message to the participants in the National Forum on Senior Civil Service, organized by the Ministry of Administration Reform and Public Service in Sekhirat on February 27, 2018, in which the Sovereign stressed that "the efficient management of the means and resources needed to achieve comprehensive development puts the issue of the efficiency of the civil service and state institutions in sharp focus, thereby underscoring the need to review their work methods and modes for the management of public funds to achieve optimal use of the available resources."

The colloquium we are organizing today is part of the process of enriching the evaluation system launched by the House and keeping pace with the agenda of the Thematic Group, which includes hearing Government officials, constitutional institutions, governance bodies, professors, experts, and civil society bodies, as well as conducting field visits to explore the progress of the implementation of the National Plan at the regional level. In this respect, we performed a field visit last week to the region of Fez-Meknes. Also, we will soon conduct two field visits to Dakhla-Oued Eddahab and Tangier-Tetouan-Al Hoceima to hold meetings with the heads of decentralized departments, heads of territorial collectives, and local actors to enrich the discussion on the contents and achievements of this Plan.

As we look forward to learning about the comparative practices of our friends and partners in terms of the methodologies used in the evaluation, as well as in terms of the suggestions and the content of the evaluation, we emphasize that the objective is to improve the performance of the House in its core competence, namely the evaluation of public action, which was prioritized in the New Development Model.

Thank you again, and you may have the floor.