Publication of the AMPCPP – January 07, 2020 – Contributions
Territorial Collectivities live today at the pace of one of the most important stages of the development of decentralization in our country, which constitutes a crucial station for the rehabilitation and activation of local institutions, while providing them with the necessary tools and material and legal means to enable them to carry out their mandates, particularly in terms of carrying out local development and setting up local projects and facilities and providing basic services to citizens.
The 2011 Constitution of the Kingdom has devoted particular attention to the Territorial Collectivities within the general territorial chessboard of the Local Government, emphasizing since the first chapter that “the territorial organization of the Kingdom is a decentralized organization based on advanced regionalization”. The Constitution also stressed that the option of decentralization is irreversible, by laying down basic principles in the light of which the distribution of competencies between the Local Government and the Territorial Collectivities, as well as the exercise of these competencies by the concerned Territorial Collectivities, will be carried out.
As part of the implementation of the provisions of the 2011 Constitution, the Organic Law on Prefectures and Provinces constitutes a qualitative leap that has raised the Prefectures and Provinces to the rank of real actors, occupying an important position alongside the Local Government, the Region and the Commune in terms of territorial development in its various dimensions.
Thus, the constitutional provisions were clear in granting the Presidents of the Councils of Prefectures and Provinces attributions to execute the decisions adopted by the elected Councils on the basis of the principle of subsidiarity, and to allow the Territorial Collectivities to exercise their attributions on the basis of the principle of free administration.
The Organic Law has introduced important novelties that concern the definition, precision and extension of the competencies of the Prefectures and Provinces, as well as the definition of the attributions of the deliberative and executive bodies, as well as the clarification of the manner in which the exercise of competencies should be carried out, within the framework of the principle of the free administration of affairs and respect for legality, local democracy, participatory democracy, solidarity between Collectivities, responsibility linked to accountability, good public service management and the establishment of new cooperation and partnership mechanisms.
It has established an integrated general framework allowing Prefectures and Provinces to exercise their competencies in accordance with the principles of the Constitution. The conditions related to the exercise of these competencies by the Council and its President have been specified, as has been the case for the mechanisms of cooperation, partnership, management of the Prefecture or the Province, as well as for the rules of administrative control, the principles of financial management and the rules of governance relating to the judicious application of the principle of free administration.
Despite its many novelties, the Organic Law on Prefectures and Provinces has brought a fluidity that reflects the consolidation of the principles of decentralization among elected officials at the level of these entities, as well as their ability to adapt to changes that affect the legislative order in which they operate, as well as their ability to overcome the difficulties and problems that may be caused by the implementation of new legal texts, with the support of the Walis and Governors as well as the administrative services in charge of the Interior.
And on the basis of experience in public affairs management at the Prefectural and Provincial levels, in order to improve the framework of action of the latter and increase the effectiveness of its development intervention, the services of the Ministry of the Interior have launched a consultation process with the various parties concerned in order to evaluate the implementation of the Organic Law on Prefectures and Provinces, with a view to identifying the problems and legal difficulties encountered in the application of its provisions and to formulate general conclusions about the measures to be implemented to overcome these problems and to provide an adequate framework to enable Prefectures and Provinces to carry out their projects and their vision of development more effectively and efficiently.
And given the objectives of the Moroccan Association of Presidents of the Councils of Prefectures and Provinces in terms of contributing to the consolidation of decentralization, and its status as a true partner in the implementation of decentralization in our country alongside other Associations representing the Territorial Collectivities in Morocco, the services of the Ministry of the Interior, held to involve the Association in this important work by asking it to formulate its observations and proposals concerning the various legal provisions whose implementation by the prefectures and provinces has presented challenges, based in particular on the practical and daily exercise of their members of the various attributions conferred on them within the Prefectures and Provinces.
Aware of its important role in the implementation of decentralization in accordance with the Constitution of 2011, and given the significant experience acquired by the Presidents in managing the affairs of the Prefectures and Provinces, the Moroccan Association of the Presidents of the Councils of Prefectures and Provinces couldn’t hesitate today to engage in this important task, which it considers a major initiative, able to improve the legislative framework and raise the level of performance of the Territorial Communities in general, and the Prefectures and Provinces in particular.
To this end, the Moroccan Association of the Presidents of the Councils of Prefectures and Provinces organized, on June 29, 2019 in Rabat, a workshop devoted to the study of the observations and proposals of the Presidents, relating to the implementation of the Organic Law No. 112.14. On the basis of this workshop, recommendations were addressed to the Ministry of the Interior as a constructive and quality contribution to this project of major importance for our country at this stage.
