Heba Press / Rabat
The Minister Delegate to the Minister of Economy and Finance, in charge of the budget, Faouzi Lakjaa, underlined, Friday in Rabat, that Morocco confirms the path of continuous improvement in terms of transparency and performance of its system of public finance management.
Lakjaa said during a workshop dedicated to the results of the evaluation of the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Program 2023, organized by the Ministry of Economy and Finance in partnership with the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the European Union and the French Development Agency. , that this evaluation, which covers the period 2020-2022, revealed a high level of performance of the public finance management system in Morocco since the previous evaluation.
Lakjaa explained that these results demonstrate Morocco’s continued commitment to improving the performance and transparency of the public finance management system.
He added that the report demonstrates “the credibility of our financial expectations, which is a direct result of the clarity of our objectives.” We know where we are now and where we aspire in the years to come, and the programs and goals envisaged between now and 2030 are now clear and precise.
He continued that this report also highlights the improvement of our legal framework and the increased transparency of our operations. It also confirms the effectiveness of our control system and the credibility of the work of the Superior Accounts Council.
On the other hand, the Minister Delegate indicated that this report also made it possible to identify areas for improvement, particularly in terms of reducing the deadlines for publication of the liquidation law, and the setting of guidelines linked to the programming of investment projects, including gender impact research. .
For his part, the Director of Operations of the World Bank for the Maghreb region, Mustapha Ndiaye, underlined the importance of the framework of the Public Expenditure and Financial Responsibility Program, which has established itself for more than 20 years as an international standard diagnosis of public finance management. , taking into account the adequacy of the evaluation methods.
He said: “Today, the Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability Agenda has been adopted by more than 150 countries and helps assess the performance of the public financial management system on the basis of specific elements, which makes it an excellent dialogue tool. on public finance reform priorities and planning for their implementation.
He continued that for Morocco, the assessment of public expenditure and financial accountability was done by adopting a flexible approach, adding that more than 60 percent of public financial management indicators obtained the highest scores. , from “A” to “B” and “B+”. », which indicates On the solidity of the Moroccan public finance management system.
Ndiaye also reiterated the responsibility of the World Bank, as the first technical and financial partner, as well as the responsibility of all partners present, to support Morocco in the different stages of implementation of the reform projects and programs. ongoing public finance management and those emerging from the action plan resulting from this evaluation.
This evaluation process is considered the third carried out by Morocco, after the two processes completed in 2009 and 2016. The evaluation of public expenditure and financial responsibility for the year 2023 is based on the objective analysis of 31 indicators , divided into 7 axes, and includes 3 major objectives for this evaluation, and it is linked to the discipline of budgets, the strategic allocation of resources and the efficient use of resources in the provision of public services.
This version of the evaluation included, for the first time, an additional module relating to the evaluation of gender-sensitive public finance management, which attests to the progress recorded in this area.
Generally speaking, this evaluation, which covers the period 2020-2022, revealed an increase in the level of performance of the public finance management system in Morocco compared to the previous evaluation, since 9 indicators recorded a positive evolution , while 10 indicators recorded stability in their performance.
Indeed, in addition to the results obtained regarding the inclusion of the gender dimension in budgetary programming, the report on public expenditure and financial accountability highlighted the improvement recorded in several aspects, such as the credibility of budgetary projections, transparency at the level of subsidy transfers, and the activation of the approach based on efficiency, and the effectiveness of debt management procedures.
Furthermore, the strict monitoring of financial assets highlighted the remarkable evolution in the public expenditure management system, the reliability of quarterly reports on budget execution, the high integrity of financial data and the proven credibility of the Council. superior of accounts.
