2023-10-31 17:30:03
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Presenting the results of the CESE opinion entitled “For harmonious and inclusive development of territories: major changes” in the presence of a group of representatives of local authorities, elected officials and associative actors and national organizations and international, the President of the Council, Ahmed Reda Chami indicated that eight years after the start of the implementation of the advanced regionalization project, notable progress has been recorded in terms of decentralization as well as in terms of modernization of structures of State.
“The reforms undertaken as part of the advanced regionalization project express the desire of public authorities to provide the country with a territorial organization capable of meeting new development challenges and responding effectively to citizens’ expectations,” underlined Mr. Chami, noting that nevertheless, the current model of territorial governance appears, under the test of the analysis and appreciation of the actors and experts interviewed, still far from the ambition of making territories “a place of anchoring of development”.
“The efforts made are still struggling to achieve the expected impact both in terms of reducing territorial and social inequalities and in terms of the regions’ contribution to building national wealth,” he noted.
In this sense, he pointed out an “unfinished territorialization of public action” due in particular to the “overlapping skills” of local authorities and their limited operational capacities.
Also among the most significant dysfunctions listed by the CESE are the “multiplicity of stakeholders” in the territorial ecosystem and the insufficient convergence of their actions, hampering the performance of the public investment made, as well as a slowness in the effective implementation of the charter of administrative deconcentration, depriving territorial actors of the human, technical and financial capacities necessary for the effective and efficient execution of their responsibilities.
“Rabat must divest itself of part of its powers for the benefit of regional representations,” argued Mr. Chami, highlighting the “weak participation” of the private sector and the third sector in the process of developing the strategic vision of the region in terms of investment.
“A clear lack, at the territorial level, of qualified human resources, jeopardizes the effective and impactful participation of local authorities in the development dynamic”, noted the president of the CESE, also deploring a slowness recorded in the implementation of the construction site. the digital transformation of administration and its impact on the quality of public service provided to users at the local level.
Thus, in the light of this diagnosis, the CESE calls for “an in-depth rethinking of the missions of the State at the territorial level” with a view to promoting an effective and efficient deployment of its action underpinned by a synchronous and harmonious articulation between the dynamics of decentralization and deconcentration.
In this perspective, the CESE advocates the revision of the organic laws of local authorities in order to provide more detailed clarification as to their attributions, by precisely delimiting the field of action of each territorial level with regard to the nature of its powers. (own, shared, transferable).
The CESE opinion also recommends establishing greater clarity in the relationships between the actors of the territorial ecosystem (wali and governor, the presidents of the three territorial levels – region, province and municipality – and the decentralized services) for a better coordination and convergence of their actions.
The Council also recommends implementing, pending the revision of organic laws, the transfer of specific skills from the ministerial departments concerned to the regions, by associating this transfer with objective and achievable criteria.
Establishing a precise, achievable and enforceable timetable in order to transfer the responsibilities and decision-making power of central administrations to decentralized State services are also among the CESE’s recommendations, as is the promotion of the development of intercommunality. and vertical cooperation between the different territorial levels, in order to ensure optimal pooling of resources and guarantee the delivery of quality public services.
The CESE also recommends establishing, as part of the ongoing public sector reform, complementarity between the skills devolved to public establishments with a territorial vocation and those transferred to decentralized administrations, ensuring the development of renovated management models. , flexible and adapted to the differentiated needs of citizens in their territories.
In the same register, the Economic, Social and Environmental Council recommends promoting the territorial public service in a logic of attractiveness of the required skills, capable of ensuring the optimal deployment of projects linked to advanced regionalization and improving the service provided. to users by accelerating the digitalization process, in particular by setting up an integrated territorial information system which facilitates interoperability between actors in the territorial ecosystem.
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