Thursday, June 6, 2024 at 9:28 p.m.
Fez – The overlapping skills of regional councils and other public institutions hinder the effective implementation of the advanced regionalization project, participants in a thematic conference organized by the Chamber of Councilors said Thursday in Fez.
Speaking as part of a panel organized under the theme “The question of skills and the challenges of mobilizing the financial and human resources necessary for the realization of projects”, the first vice-president of the Regional Council of Fez-Meknes, Younes Er-Rafik, noted a certain ambiguity in the definition of the exclusive competences of the Regional Councils, in addition to a large overlap of the prerogatives of the region, on the one hand, and of ministerial departments and certain public institutions, on the other hand. .
This overlapping of skills, he noted, requires regional councils to use a contractual approach to implement their plans and programs.
To remedy this situation, Mr. Er-Rafik proposed capitalizing on the important work already carried out by local municipalities and regional agencies.
He also called for continuing the work carried out by the House of Councilors within the framework of the Parliamentary Forum of the Regions which constitutes a platform for dialogue between the parliamentary institution and the regional councils and all stakeholders in matters affecting the competence of the regions.
On another note, Mr. Er-Rafik welcomed the undeniable increase in financial resources allocated to the regions in recent years, noting that only 10% of the regions’ budget is dedicated to management, while 90% are used for investment.
For his part, academic Rachid Labkar estimated that the revision of the legal framework governing the project of advanced regionalization has become “inevitable and imperative”.
“We must demonstrate firm political will to implement advanced regionalization to which we all aspire,” he said, deploring, in turn, an overlapping of prerogatives between regional councils, wilayas and municipalities.
In addition, noted the researcher, the regionalization project suffers from a human resources problem, calling for the removal of administrative and legal obstacles which do not encourage highly qualified executives to commit their know-how to the implementation implementation of regional development programs.
For his part, academic Moubarak Tayei retorted that revising the legal framework is not necessarily the solution to the problems of regionalization in Morocco.
“The regionalization project must not be restricted to the institutional and legislative level only: it is a societal project which requires the involvement of all,” he argued, explaining that before reviewing the framework legal of advanced regionalization, we must consider putting in place effective evaluation mechanisms to measure the implementation of existing provisions.
This is all the more necessary as we note a disparity in the implementation of regionalization despite a single legal framework, noted Mr. Tayeï.
“The implementation of regionalization must be done from below. It involves strengthening local authorities, the keystone of strengthening the capacities of any region,” continued the academic.
Initiated in partnership with the council of the Fez-Meknes region as part of the preparations for the sixth Parliamentary Forum of the Regions, this meeting focused on the challenges linked to the contractual approach as a mechanism for achieving convergence in terms of integrated development and sustainable across the region. The goal, according to the organizers, is to allow the region to exercise its skills and meet the challenges linked to the financial and human resources necessary to carry out its development missions.
This conference aims to explore fundamental approaches to change at the level of the legal system and shed light on the constraints that have prevented local authorities, in practice, from achieving the necessary efficiency in management with neglect of the mechanism of conventions and of the possibilities it offers for achieving convergence at the level of territorial public policies.
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