House of Representatives Adopts a Parliamentary Bill and Five Government Bills of Social, Economic, and Judicial Nature

The House of Representatives adopted unanimously on Thursday, July 8, 2021, five Government Bills on regulating contractual volunteering, the reform of public institutions and enterprises, tax reform, the statute of public service, and the general inspectorate of judicial affairs. In addition, the House also adopted a parliamentary bill on tourist guides. The adoption of the bills took place in two plenary sittings chaired by Speaker of House of Representatives Habib El Malki and First Deputy Speaker of House of Representatives Soulaimane Amrani, with the participation of Minister of Justice Mohammed Ben Abdelkader, Minister of Economy, Finance, and Administration Reform Mohammed Benchaâboun, and Minister of Labor and Professional Integration Mohammed Amekraz.

In his presentation of Government Bill 06.18 on regulating contractual volunteer work, Minister of Labor and Professional Integration Mohammed Amekraz noted that the Bill comes in a global and national context that focuses on the importance of volunteer work in implementing the initiatives that aim at fighting poverty, achieving development, and empowering vulnerable social groups at the economic and social levels. In the same respect, he noted that His Majesty King Mohammed VI affirmed in his speech at the opening of the first session of the third legislative year of the tenth legislature on the importance of volunteer work and called for promoting it and facilitating its procedures.

The Bill aims to define contractual volunteer work and set its system and conditions of practice, in addition to the administrative procedures and measures related to it. The Bill also aims to regulate the rights and obligations of the parties involved in contractual volunteer work and to establish control mechanisms and systems for sanctions and penalties related to it, and create a national register for contractual volunteer work.

During the discussion, the representatives praised the content of the Bill, considering it a basis for participatory democracy as established by the 2011 Constitution and a source of "social capital" and a coronation of the development that has marked social and volunteer work in Morocco. The representatives called for encouraging volunteering initiatives, adopting flexibility in handling accreditation applications in contractual volunteer work, and advancing participatory democracy in a way that goes hand in hand with the development our country witnesses in different sectors.

At the same sitting, Minister of Economy, Finance, and Administration Reform Mohammed Benchaâboun introduced Framework Government Bill 50.21 on the reform of public institutions and enterprises and Framework Government Bill 69.19 on tax reform. The Minister stated that the adoption of the above-mentioned framework bills, in addition to the creation of the Mohammed VI Investment Fund, the launch of a plan to relaunch the national economy, lay the foundations for a new phase of fundamental reforms over a period of 5 years, which will have a significant impact on providing social protection for large proportions of citizens, on the economic acceleration and efficiency of institutions, the launch of new investment programs, the creation of job opportunities, and the anticipation of promising economic horizons of the Kingdom, on the horizon of the implementation of the new development model.

Government Framework Bill 50.21 on the reform of public institutions and enterprises aims to remedy the structural dysfunctions of public institutions and enterprises and to improve their performance. It also aims to alter the volume of the public sector, restructure it, rationalize the resources of the State and adopt flexibility in the restructuring of public sector institutions and improve their governance. The Bill also aims to control the creation of new public institutions and enterprises and modernize the State's financial control mechanisms.

Government Framework Bill 69.19 on tax reform aims to remedy the dysfunctions and shortcomings of the current tax system, achieve fiscal equity, strengthen trust between the administration and taxpayers, mobilize all the fiscal potential for financing public policies, to reform the tax system of communes and quasi-fiscal system, and to strengthen the system of effective and efficient governance in the tax field.

During the discussion, representatives of the parliamentary groups and groupings noted that the two Government framework bills are a reform of national priority given the role of taxation in financing public policies and maintaining macroeconomic balances, taking into consideration the strategic roles of public institutions and enterprises. The representatives also focused on the most important challenges still facing taxation and the management of public institutions and enterprises.

Mr. Benchaâboun also presented Government Bill 39.21 supplementing Dahir 1.58.008 of February 24, 1958 (Chaaban 4, 1377) on the statute of the public service. The Bill involves public sector health professionals in the categories to which the provisions of this Dahir do not apply. The Minister noted that the aim is to elaborate a particular statute of their own in accordance with a legislative text that responds to the particularities and nature of the tasks they perform within the healthcare system and the challenges and risks they face.

In his presentation of Government Bill 38.21 on the composition of the General Inspectorate of Judicial Affairs, its functions, its organization rules, and the rights and obligations of its members, Minister of Justice Mohammed Ben Abdelkader stressed that the Bill is part of the efforts of reform of the justice system, and to complement the institutional structure of the judiciary in our country. The Bill also comes to implement the first paragraph of Article 53 of Organic Law 100.13 on the Supreme Council of the Judiciary concerning the establishment of a General Inspectorate of Judicial Affairs under the aegis of the Council, whose composition, powers, organization rules, rights and obligations of its members are determined by law.

During the second legislative sitting devoted to parliamentary bills, the House of Representatives unanimously adopted a parliamentary bill amending Law 133.13 amending Law 05.12 regulating the profession of tourist guides. The Bill intends to solve certain practical problems relating to the application of the Law regulating the profession of tourist guides, particularly concerning the training and delimitation of the field of work, which will help create job opportunities for youth and solve social problems for youth and a wide range of tourist guides.