The World Bank Board of Executive directors today approved a US$450 million loan to support key governance reforms in Morocco as part of the government’s ambitious strategy to modernize the public sector. Over the past few years, Morocco has embarked on long-term and wide-ranging reforms to improve the overall performance of the public sector and to improve citizen-state engagement. Building on past World Bank governance programs in Morocco, the Public Sector Performance (ENNAJAA) Program for Results (PforR) aims to improve the performance and transparency of government operations and service delivery.

“For Moroccan citizens, the quality and transparency of public services is a fundamental development priority to foster trust and improve the timeliness and quality of administrative procedures, as laid out in the diagnosis of the New Development Model. This program will support key measures to help maximize the impact of the government’s strategy and to modernize the public administration’s delivery model,” said Jesko Hentschel, World Bank Maghreb Country Director.

The program is built around three areas. The first aims to improve the efficiency and transparency of public spending and to improve resource allocation. “Addressing inefficient expenditure is a  priority for the Government of Morocco. The purpose of the supported reforms under this pillar is to tie budgets to measurable results and to advance the regionalization agenda. It is also to increase access to procurement opportunities for micro to medium-sized enterprises, including through e-procurement and enhanced procurement data transparency, to guarantee better “value for money” of public services,” said Klaus Decker, Senior Public Sector Specialist and co-Task Team Leader.

The second area is aimed at improving revenue collection and tax compliance. Public administrations at local and central levels are faced with complex tax policies which leads to a scattered tax control system. This translates into taxation gaps, which in turn reduce the financing capacity for key development programs. To address these constraints, the program will aim to simplify the local taxation framework and to leverage control mechanisms to expand the tax base.

The third area is focused on improving the foundations of digital transformation by digitally connecting government administrations to provide users with integrated access to public services as well as by promoting the production and publication of data on an open access principle. Together, they are foundational enablers for the Government of Morocco’s digital transformation and citizen-centric service delivery agendas.

“Digitization of the public administration is key to improving the delivery of public services, especially in remote areas, and to strengthening trust between the State and its citizens. This program supports the operationalization of a central government digital platform that interconnects the administrations together and with its citizens. At the same time, it will also promote the open data agenda by significantly expanding the number of public data sets that are available to everyone free of charge,” said Arthur Foch, Senior Digital Development Specialist and co-Task Team Leader.