Moroccan public management system reforms: A critical diagnostic of adopted approaches and reforming exigencies
Prepared by the researcher : MOUAD ELKHAYAR Legal advisor. PhD student, Member of political studies and territorial governance laboratory, Faculty of juridical, economic and social sciences, Mohammedia, University HASSAN 2.
Democratic Arab Center
Journal of Constitutional Law and Administrative Sciences : Eighteenth Issue – February 2023
A Periodical International Journal published by the “Democratic Arab Center” Germany – Berlin
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Abstract
Public management performance is an essential determinant for measuring countries development and a lot of experiences are now aware that focusing on their public management continuous improvement represents a key element for achieving a multidimensional raise, the Moroccan experience, in fact, hasn’t been excluded from this management race, actually, many efforts have been deployed in order to reestablish the existing public managerial system and joining the international public management improvement wave.
This study comes to shed the light on the reality of public management reform operations that have been launched by the Moroccan experience, specially by questioning their efficacy and the matter that if there was possible that those operations, reflected in policies, plans and programs, could have been taken further in terms of efficacy and efficiency in a way that allows the Moroccan experience to be an international example in this field, the study focuses also on the main problematics and limits that may impact on the Moroccan efforts success in this regard, furthermore, it suggests some recommendations basing on various theoretical and practical determinants in order to ensure the establishment of a good Moroccan public administration.
Introduction
Public management good performance is one of the most important determinants to measure states success in delivering their respective services, also, it serves states to tackle the main challenges and succeed achieving the raised bets, in this regard, the Moroccan experience has proven of an early consciousness about the importance of reforming public administration not just as a contextual or an ephemeral necessity, but as a crucial element of a whole state reform approach and an essential development tool, in fact, reforming public administration has become one of the main state priorities under the reign of the king Mohamed 6, due to many current domestic and international exigencies.
However, this paper tends to determinate how far the Moroccan experience have succeeded in improving its public management system performance, after approximatively 23 years after the king Mohamed 6 enthronement.
To analyze this point, we suggest that we pose the following questions:
- What is the nature of efforts deployed by Moroccan authorities to reform its public management system?
- What are the main limits that impact on the Moroccan public management performance?
- What recommendations could be given to tackle those limits and help improving the Moroccan public management system efficacy and efficiency?
For methodological reasons, we will pose the following hypothesis, and we’ll come through this respective study to check their exactitude or inexactitude:
- The efforts that were deployed by Moroccan experience weren’t enough to keep pace with both domestic and international exigencies in this regard;
- There are many limits impacting the Moroccan public management system as for human resources problematic, mentalities problematic and plans inapplicability problematic;
- It’s important to adopt exhaustive public administration reform approaches instead of ephemeral ones in order to tackle the current challenges and succeeding the public management reform bet.
However, this paper will be divided into two chapters as it follows
Chapter 1: The diagnostic of Moroccan public administration performance reality
Chapter 2: Moroccan public management improvement’s recommendation
Chapter 1: The diagnostic of Moroccan public administration performance reaity
In this chapter, we’ll focus on the diagnostic of the deployed efforts by the Moroccan experience to improve its public management performance (A) as well as the main limits impacting on this given performance (B).
- Moroccan public administration reform, a continuous deployed effort.
Evidentially, improving public administration is one of every state’s main goals, Moroccan experience has been engaged since the independence in many policies, programs and projects which were tending to upgrade the public administration performance as for, the 1996 PNUD known as national program of managerial competencies modernization and improvement, the 1999 chart of good management, the MPASP I, II and III, [1] just to name a few.
In fact, the Moroccan experience have learned for its experience that it becomes much more aware of public administration management determinants, as a results, the management axed on resources has been surpassed to what it’s newly became known as management based on results which can be defined as a future-oriented process that emphasizes deployment of resources to achieve meaningful results. The desired results are based upon identified needs of customers and stakeholders, and are used to improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of programs and services.[2]
However, by following and analyzing the different policies and programs that were launched by the Moroccan authorities so far, it can be said that there is a steady progress that needs to be well appreciated,[3] yet, the question stills if this progress could have been taken little further, this is what we will try to find out in the following lines.
In fact, Moroccan authorities have learned all over the years form their public administration management experience in a way that make them aware not just of what has been lacked in that given experience, but also in terms of the determinants that has to be in any of the public management system taking into account both domestic and external/international exigencies, we can refer in this regard to the succeeding royal speeches which were focusing like never before on the public administration topic, and much more on problematics affecting the public administration performance, we can cite here for instance the 2018 throne speech where his majesty said “accomplishing achievements, correcting failures and overcoming economic and social problems are objectives that need collective and planed actions between institutions and diverse actors, particularly, between government members and political parties’, also, his majesty confirmed the next year, in the 2019 throne speech that “in the same perspective, it should reinforce institutions efficacy and develop responsible mentalities, in fact, the public sector must, forthwith, operate a triple outburst in terms of simplification, efficacy and moralization, furthermore, I always called for the necessity to modernize work methods and to show creativity and innovation in the management of public affairs”.
Actually, that reflects that there is a real will to rethink Moroccan public management system framework that seems likely to be separated from both its domestic and external/international context, as a result, Moroccan authorities have recently announced a triennial public administration reform plan taking place from 2018 to 2021, containing 24 principal programs deployed on 4 transformations, namely, organizational, managerial, numeric and ethics transformations,[4] it can be noticed that this given plan reflects an awareness of the main determinants of the new public administration system, but, it is noticed that the Moroccan royal institution was always the initiator of every public management reform policy as well as in term of giving guidelines for the set up and the implementation prescriptions of such policies, and if this seems to be likely one of the royal institution main roles in Morocco, nevertheless, it doesn’t mean that the public administration have always to stay waiting for those guidelines to take an action, in fact, the public administrative reform is an interactive system demanding from every interested party to work with the same speed as others do.
In fact, the Moroccan 2018-2021 NPAR has introduced many projects that will serve as a reference to the Moroccan public administration management, as for the public services chart that prescribes the principles to be adopted and implemented by every Moroccan public service, and that is why we can say that the Moroccan authorities wanted from 2018-2021 NPAR to be more than a temporary plan, but instead, they want it to be a releasing plan of many upcoming projects that will help guiding and improving public administration performance.
It should be noted that the Moroccan public administration framework is not exclusively found in the programs which are contained in the 2018-2021 NPAR, rather, it was opted for a variety of tools and references serving as guidelines, to name a few, in addition to the so-called plans, programs and policies (representing the government part), there is the juridical arsenal that is relied on to frame and put into action both intended reforms and actions, for instance, the 2011 constitution has come with many new management principles and legal provisions tending to achieve public management efficiency and efficacy [5] there was also many regulatory and legislative texts establishing new norms and principles of the public administration action, as for the law 55.19 related to procedures and administrative formalities simplification[6] as well as the law 54.19 considered as public services chart,[7] just to name a few.
Actually, the economic development and the economic bets that have been raised by the state of Morocco cannot be simply brought off without proceeding to an exhaustive public administration action, that is why the economic factor was a crucial determinant of the current public administration reform wave, and if this movement deserves to be well appreciated regardless what it could be said about it, it has to be seen, for the present time but also in the future, as a state necessity for everyone’s welfare, and not just an economic measure to satisfy both investors and state’s economic needs, this approach has to be, in fact, a priority for every Moroccan public decider, as the king Mohamed 6 has made it clear when he has traced the public management reform general framework, furthermore, every Moroccan public decider has to exercise his full attributions without waiting for exterior initiatives to be taken, in respect, obviously, to the obligation of political policies coherency as a core public management principle,
- Moroccan public management system limits
Evidently, there’s no country that has proven being an ideal type in terms of adopted public management system, actually, there is always something to say about management systems in every experience regardless how much advanced it could be, but, having some inconvenient elements doesn’t minimize the value of the adopted public management system.
However, going back to the Moroccan public management system, there is many weakness points that still impacting hugely that given system efficiency, and although that it seems that Moroccan authorities are really aware of them, but they didn’t succeed reaching to a convenient approach to surpass them[8], however, we can point in this article to some weakness points which seem, from our standpoint, really urgent to be treated but also essential for the current management system success
Actually, we can cite here respectfully 3 main problematics which need to be urgently treated, otherwise, launched reform programs, plans and policies may not succeed in the achievement of the objectives that they were set to accomplish, however, these problematics are the following:
- The mentality and behavior problematic
- The human resources problematic
- Policies and programs inapplicability problematic.
In fact, pointing at the mentality problematic never has been mentioned in an official announcement in the Moroccan history, even that there was an awareness from both state and society of how large it was impacting negatively the public administration performance, practically, the 2019 throne speech was the first and the only source we can find announcing that mentalities within the Moroccan public administration are an essential limit to its efficiency,
What it could be said about this problematic specifically is that it is more profound to be approached by a temporary plan as it was the case for the 2018-2021 NPAR, temporary plans cannot offer but temporary treatment solutions, but for some kind of problems such for the mentality problem, they need to be deeply thought and well planned, in fact, in this regard, Morocco has adopted his development model which offers a general vision of Moroccan future strategic orientations,[9] this model is based on a variety of axes hoped to help improving the general development process of the state, the question here is that this model is not offering, from our standpoint, exhaustive alternatives or solutions to surpass the mentality problem previously mentioned, furthermore, it seems that it has forgotten many elements that cannot be separated from each other giving their automatic correlativity.
in fact, there couldn’t be any bet on improving human resources through the work on some elements that even if it may appeared that they have some connectivity between each other, but is the question of exhaustively degrees that has to be asked on in this regard, for instance, the plan mentioned above talks about schooling and health as determinants for human resources valorization,[10] without pointing at some other elements, such as social and environment factors, because, the quality management that’s sought today by the Moroccan state has to be found basically in the manager’s spirit and education, because the quality has never been seen as theories, instead, the quality is ,after all, a behavior.
Another problem that is always pointed at in official announcement and royal directives is the human resources problematics, as it’s known, human resources are every institution’s essential locomotive, it can’t be even thought of performance without thinking about human resources as they represent the reference by which this given performance can be measured, however, all over the Moroccan modern history, there was an awareness of the importance of human resources in the improvement of public administration performances, many approaches have taken the shape to improve the intervention quality of those resources, but, it can be seen clearly that no one of those approaches have really succeed achieving the hoped goals, in fact, many recent official public announcements (including those we have mentioned above) have declared human resources multiple problematics and deficiencies within the public administration, in fact, by looking a little deeply at those announcements we can conclude that the majority of public administration problems are related directly or indirectly to human resources.[11]
Practically, we can see that Moroccan authorities efforts are simply not enough to accomplish human resources planed goals, as their situation stills as it is without significant improvement, by backing to the 2018-2021 NPAR we can see that competent authorities have approached human resources problematics mainly from obligations side, without being clear about planes made for improving their material situation, in fact, from a sociological and managerial standpoint, it couldn’t be there any efficacy in terms of achievement of the 2018-2021 NPAR goals without prioritizing human resources material or financial problematic, practically, we can see that there is no initiative made by Moroccan authorities to treat this given problematic in an exhaustive way, as salaries still very low and the majority of professional careers are not encouraging, furthermore, it is important to be aware of the inutility of comparing those salaries with some regional experiences, because it is important to take into account that Moroccan domestic specificity, as it is the case for any compared experience that has its own specificity.
However, human resources problematics within the Moroccan public administration cannot be shorted in what we have mentioned here, as there still many other problematics as for salaries injustice, human resources deployment, lack of training programs…), in fact, those problematics are several and Moroccan competent authorities are called to approach them as much convenient and exhaustive way as possible.
Furthermore, it is important to point out that Moroccan authorities suffers from policies and programs inapplicability problematic, in fact, it seems that when it comes to planning, Moroccan public deciders prove of a good implication by their side, but, when it comes to put those plans into work, the results are not really promising, in fact, some studies confirm the weakness of Moroccan public administration by using some ground measuring elements, they conclude that the Moroccan public administration still have big strategic, operational and functional problematics, which makes from programs put into work nothing but superficial and symbolic actions.[12]
Chapter 2: Moroccan public management improvement’s recommendation
It must to be noticed that there are many recommendations to improve Moroccan public management performance, taking into account both environment and specificity of surrounding problematics which impact on the effectiveness of public administration interventions, but, there is no room to discuss here every single recommendation, so we will focus just on the main recommendations that we think that they may play a critical role in achieving performance goals that are targeted by Moroccan authorities, hence, we will divide this chapter into two parties where we’ll take a look to the need of proceeding to an exhaustive and a long term state project (A) (A) as well as an effective implementation of public management principles (B) as two main determinant to reform Moroccan public management system.
- Reforming public administration, an exhaustive and a long term state project
In fact Reforming public administration is, after all, an exhaustive project, which means simply that it has to approached while taking in consideration every single aspect that may seem relevant to it, sometimes, some reforms need a real social and state revolution that include all what it may take a society to develop, other times, it takes just to take some measures that may be included in short term programs, also, it may take to approach it as a notional policy without needing to take revolutionary measures, however, it seems that the Moroccan case needs an exhaustive revision and a revolutionary program to be set up.
Being a long term project, parties who may be leading it have to take into account that this kind of projects are distinguished by their unique characteristics, which are reflected in the importance of the right approaches to be adopted, those parties have to adopt a convenient project management that will help tackling the current problematics that are faced off, in fact, as a project with an exhaustive dimension, the administrative reform has to be planed and put into work taking onto account various determinants to ensure its success, actually, by looking at the Moroccan experience in this regard, we can find that projects that have been launched were lacking some key elements that impact negatively on their success, and it’s the same experience that repeat itself with the 2018-2021 ARNP that, even we are 1 year after that it comes to its end, many project that were included or aligned with it are not put into work so far,[13] knowing that other ones weren’t included at all.
It must be mentioned that public administration reforms have to be conducted with specific approaches, norms, methods and principles to ensure their success, because public management is, if used within its convenient framework, a science that has its proper particularities,[14] however, we can refer here to some main elements and principles that have to be taken into account while setting strategic framework of public administration reforms with some explanations beside , as following:
- The leadership of public administration reform is established and the strategic framework provides the basis for implementing prioritised and sequenced reform activities aligned with the Government’s financial circumstances
- The Government has developed and enacted an effective public administration reform agenda which addresses key challenges
- Public administration reform is purposefully implemented; reform outcome targets are set and regularly monitored
- Financial sustainability of public administration reform is ensured.
- Public administration reform management enables guiding and steering reforms, determines the accountability for implementation and ensures the professional administration needed for reform implementation
- Public administration reform has robust and functioning co-ordination structures at both the political and administrative level to steer and manage the reform design and implementation process.
- One leading institution has responsibility and capacity to manage the reform process; involved institutions have clear accountability and reform implementation capacity.[15]
- Public management principle’s input in the establishment of a good Moroccan public administration
Talking about the general part of Moroccan public administration topic, it is important to go a bit further to question the relevant reasons that may participate or being the real reasons behind some Moroccan public administration problematics, as for the mentality problem that we have mentioned before, we think that treating this problem needs to be seen from different disciplinary sides, the psycho-social side seems to be the most important disciplinary side dominating in this regard.
in fact, we think that from a psycho-social standpoint but also in reference to the 2017 throne speech which announce the existence of a mentality problem within the Moroccan public administration, we can conclude that many public deciders suffer from a behavioral and old mentality domination problematics that made them the public deciders that they are now, knowing that practically, a lot of them are aware of the theoretical part of public administration management principles (many of them have MBA and similar diplomas…) but it seems that they can’t reflect this knowledge into practice to make public services users satisfied of those services, and the failure of the most of them is not just something that have been expressed by public services users, but even the royal institution, which is an active actor in all public sceneries, has declared officially their failure.
In fact, by backing to the 2018-2021 NPAR, we can see that authorities which have been behind this plan thought of the ethic transformations as resolution of this problem, but we can see clearly that the coercive approach cannot be bet on as the problem is deeper that it needs to be approached form many sides as we have mentioned before, however, we think that Moroccan experience needs a long term policy to make its public administration get back on its feet, there has to be a special focus on education sector as a main determinant to be build on, furthermore, Moroccan authorities should work on the improvement of citizens welfare, as for health, education, dignified jobs etc.
Talking about the “technical part”, Moroccan public administration needs to focus on the achievement of the efficacy of its interventions, actually, putting programs and policies is the simple part comparing to the application phase, hence, it’s important to think about some measures to put into work to assess the public administration action’s efficacy, in fact, Moroccan authorities have thought about some tools that may help rationalizing the public administration financial expenditure as for project and programs described in the 130.13 regulatory law[16] , furthermore, public administration is called to put into work a deeper framework of new public management principles to be set up as references and guidelines of the Moroccan public administration actions.
In fact, the four transformational, organizational, numeric and ethical transformations that were declared as pillars for the 2018-2021 NPAR are good, but they’re not enough for achieving the efficiency and efficacy goals as they are willed by the Moroccan authorities, digging up deeply in public management principles and ensuring their applicability by putting the relevant plans are simply the most efficient approach to be adopted.
however, the tools that were set to achieving Moroccan public administration performance can be completed by some additional tools that have proven their practical utility, as for internal audit cells, practically, every single public service has to have its own internal audit cell whose the mission is to periodically assess that given service efficacy, it is to be mentioned that Moroccan competent authorities have to make sure that the role of those cells will not be limited in just being an administrative procedure with a focus on compliance, but it will surpass that to be an important element of good governance and performance measurement. In many cases the existence of internal auditing is mandatory,[17] furthermore, the establishment of those cells have to be done with full compliance to the international standards, especially in terms of Integrity, Objectivity, Competency, Confidentiality and Independence.[18]
Furthermore, the improvement of public administration in morocco needs an effective state implication to improve human resources social life, in fact, this goal was set in the 2018-2021 NPAR but it was left unachieved as it represents a real challenge for Moroccan authorities, it is to be noticed that regardless how challenging this objective could be for those authorities, there will be no room for Moroccan public administration improvement without improving officials social situation, however, Moroccan authorities are called to find some alternatives to fix this real problematics, knowing that alternatives are numerous, but it has to be there a real collective will to change the current situation.
In addition, the Moroccan public administration management should focus more on the use of digital tools for the majority of its interventions, it’s true that the period during and post covid has shown a huge convergence of Moroccan public administration to the use of digital tools, but it is important to be there an insurance of the continuity of digital programs that may be adopted, hence, temporary plans or band-aid solution shouldn’t have place anymore with the Moroccan public sphere, for some researchers, the use of digital tools is a synonym of public governance, he points out that public administration affairs must be closely related to individual capabilities of citizens in managing their individual social problems[19]
Generally, there are plenty of recommendation that can be suggested to improve the Moroccan public administration management, However, we can summarize our recommendations in the following points as determinants for the Moroccan public administration performance
- Educational determinant consideration;
- Psychological and behavioral determinant consideration,
- society welfare insurance;
- Adoption of public management technics (e.g. NPM principles).
References:
Books
Choate, Pat and Susan Walter. Thinking Strategically: A Primer for Public Leaders. Washington, D.C. USA, The Council of State Planning Agencies, 1984.
Frieder Naschold, New Frontiers in Public Sector Management WDG, Berlin, Germany, English translation (by Andrew Watt).
Hatry, Harry P. Performance Measurement Principles and Techniques: An Overview for State Governments. The Urban Institute. USA, March 1983.
Laws
The 130.13 regulatory law Official bulletin n° 6370, 18 June 2015.
The law 55.19 related to procedures and administrative formalities simplification, Official bulletin n° 6866, 19 March 2020
The law 54.19 considered as public services chart Official bulletin n° 7006, 22 June 2021
Articles
BAHA, SANAE, La nouvelle gestion publique dans l’administration marocaine : vrai ou faux changement institutionnel. International Journal of Accounting, Finance, Auditing, Management and Economics, MOROCCO,2022.
Cyril RENWICK, B.Ec, Public Administration: Towards a Science, JTSOTR, USA, 2014.
Royal speeches
The 2018 throne speech.
The 2019 throne speech.
Thesis
Ahmed Ben Amer ELYOUBI, Public policy in the field of human resources, phd tesis (in Arabic), Mohammed 1 university, faculty of juridical, economic and social sciences, MOROCCO, 2021.
Norms and reports
intosai-gov 9140, entitled internal audit independence in the public sector.
The new model development, power liberation and regaining trust to accelerate progress speed and achievement everyone’s welfare, General report, MOROCCO, April 202
World Bank, Best Practices for Internal Audit in Government Departments. 2015
Websites
Réalisation du gouvernement 2017-2021, des efforts louables pour renforcer la gouvernance et réforme de l’administration, Présidence de gouvernement Marocain, www.cg.gov.ma
The principles of public administration, SIGMA, OECD, see it at: www.sigmaweb.org
[1] The Moroccan public administration supporting program
[2] To read more about management based on results, you can see:
Choate, Pat and Susan Walter. Thinking Strategically: A Primer for Public Leaders. Washington, D.C. USA: The Council of State Planning Agencies, 1984.
Harry P. Hatry Performance Measurement Principles and Techniques: An Overview for State Governments. The Urban Institute, USA, March 1983.
We should distinguish here between management by results and management by objectives, Frieder Naschold has defined four different ‘steering concepts’ of public service management as: ·
- administrative rule steering within bureaucratic organizations
- management by objectives, as practiced in the 1970s
- management by results, as developed in the ‘new public management’ of the 1980s and 1990s
- directive and decentral contextual steering, developed by systems theory.
See: Frieder Naschold, New Frontiers in Public Sector Management WDG, Berlin, Germany, English translation (by Andrew Watt), p.67.
[3] See for instance some of Moroccan deployed efforts and achieved programs tending to reform the public administration at : Réalisation du gouvernement 2017-2021, des efforts louables pour renforcer la gouvernance et réforme de l’administration, Présidence de gouvernement Marocain, www.cg.gov.ma
[4] It has to be mentioned that the Moroccan experience in this regard has kown a lot polices and plans of the same nature, however, the 2018 – 2021 administration reform national plan, shortly known as the 2018 2021 was likely the chain’s last one.
[5] See for instance articles 139, 147 to 150, 162…
[6] Official bulletin n° 6866, 19 March 2020
[7] Official bulletin n° 7006, 22 June 2021
[8] For instance, the mentality problematic which was revealed by the monarch at the occasion of the 2019 throne speech still being left out untreated as it seems a very profound problematic to be treated.
[9] The new model development, power liberation and regaining trust to accelerate progress speed and achievement everyone’s welfare, General report, MOROCCO, April 2021.
[10] See for instance, the new model development, cited above, PP: 92 to 95, and it is advised to revise the whole model to have a deeper idea in this regard.
[11] See in this regard, Ahmed Ben Amer ELYOUBI, Public policy in the field of human resources, phd tesis (in Arabic), Mohammed 1 university, faculty of juridical, economic and social sciences, MOROCCO, 2021.
[12] BAHA, SANAE, La nouvelle gestion publique dans l’administration marocaine : vrai ou faux changement institutionnel. International Journal of Accounting, Finance, Auditing, Management and Economics, MOROCCO,2022, PP: 397, 398
[13] As for official’s social protection reinforcement, improving inter-ministerial communication…
[14] Cyril RENWICK, B.Ec has confirmed in this regard that “suggestions for answers to the questions posed at the beginning of this essay have now been given according to my views. If such a science as I suggest can be created, then “advice” could be given on surer grounds than at present, and would be free from the partisan tang which distinguishes so much “reform” nowadays. But such advice could be delivered only from the steps of the temple, after all the mysterious rites have been performed within. The word “mysterious” is used quite seriously, because it does not seem possible that a positive science of Public Administration will ever be any more the possession of the general public or the ordinary civil servant, as such, than any other science is”. see, Cyril RENWICK, B.Ec, Public Administration: Towards a Science, JTSOTR, USA, 2014, P: 83.
[15] The principles of public administration, SIGMA, OECD, see it at: www.sigmaweb.org
[16] The legislator has defined program in the article 39 of the 130.13 regulatory law as a bunch of coherent programs or operations relevant to the same ministerial department or establishment to which are attached defined objectives according to public interest finality as well as encrypted indicators allowing to measure desired results and subjecting to an assessment which tends to ensure efficacy and efficiency conditions related to achievement, the article 41 of the same law prescribes that a project or an action is a determined bunch of activities and operations undertaken to achieve a bunch of defined needs.
[17] See: intosai-gov 9140, entitled internal audit independence in the public sector, P :1
[18] World Bank, Best Practices for Internal Audit in Government Departments. 2015
[19] Branko Dimeski , New Public Management and Digital Era Governance Approaches in Function of Promoting Entrepreneurship in the Public Sector, sryahwa publications, Journal of Public Administration Volume 1, Issue 1, 2019, USA, P: 48
