Transparency Portal (MO0006)

Setting up a transparency portal
From 30 August 2018 to 30 August 2020
Lead implementing agency/actor
Ministry of Administration Reform and Civil Service (MRAFP)
Commitment description
What is the public problem that the commitment will address?
Morocco has launched several projects to promote transparency, including: - A national anti-corruption strategy - The law on the right to access information (proactive publication of public data, requests for access to information, etc.) - Joining the OGP However, these efforts have been communicated to the public in a limited and fragmented manner, and citizens cannot easily obtain information related to the transparency projects.
What is the commitment?
This commitment is about the creation of a national transparency portal that allows for:
Submitting and monitoring requests for information, Publishing proactively the information held by government departments Publishing open data Publishing and monitoring the implementation of the National OGP Action Plan Citizen participation in drafting public policies on Open Government Publishing statistics and indicators on the Moroccan Government
How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem?
This commitment highlights the efforts made to promote transparency and facilitates recognised access to different kinds of information.
Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values?
The portal will increase transparency and access to information and update the public on achievements regarding Open Government.
Additional information
Related commitments: Commitment 1 Commitment 2 Commitment 4
Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable
Organising a seminar to present the project and involve stakeholders
September 2018 September 2018
Identifying the portal’s contents and services
September 2018 October 2018
Developing the portal
November 2018 December 2018
Preparing guides for updating the portal
January 2019 January 2019
Organising training sessions on the portal’s management and use for partner government departments
February 2019 March 2019
Contact point details
Contact point name (project manager)
Ms Ouiame EL MOUSTAMIDE
Position/ department
Head of Division of Studies and Legislation, Ministry of Administration Reform and Civil Service
Email and telephone
o.elmoustamide@mmsp.gov.ma 00212 5 37 67 98 95
Other actors involved
Government departments
Civil society

Commitment 6: Transparency Portal

Language of the commitment as it appears in the action plan:

“This commitment is about the creation of a national transparency portal that allows for:

• Submitting and monitoring requests for information,
• Publishing proactively the information held by government departments
• Publishing open data
• Publishing and monitoring the implementation of the National OGP Action Plan
• Citizen participation in drafting public policies on Open Government
• Publishing statistics and indicators on the Moroccan Government

Milestones:

• Organizing a seminar to present the project and involve stakeholders
• Identifying the portal’s contents and services
• Developing the portal
• Preparing guides for updating the portal
• Organizing training sessions on the portal’s management and use for partner government departments."

Start Date: August 2018

End Date: August 2020

Editorial Note: the commitment description provided above is an abridged version of the commitment text, please see the full action plan here: https://www.opengovpartnership.org/documents/morocco-action-plan-2018-2020/

Context and objectives

This commitment aims to establish an online platform that brings together various ongoing open government initiatives into one place. These initiates include a portal for citizens to submit and monitor access to information requests, channels for citizens to participate in the OGP co-creation process and policymaking, and proactive disclosure of data and information by the government. This commitment is therefore connected to Commitments 1 through 4 on access to information and Commitments 15 and 16 on civic participation in this action plan, among others.

Morocco's 2011 Constitution and organic laws passed over the last decade established the legal framework for greater government transparency and civic participation in policymaking. The government of Morocco is now in the process of implementing the regulations and tools to enact these rights. In particular, the transparency portal will further implementation of Morocco's 2018 Access to Information law and the proactive publication provisions that went into effect in 2020. ^[53]

At the time of co-creation of this action plan, Moroccans faced limited means to access information and engage with policymaking. When the government does disclose data, it is often inconsistent, in PDF format, and highly technical, making it of limited use to experts or the general public. ^[54] See the analysis for Commitments 1 and 2 for information on the obstacles citizens face in requesting government information. Morocco's membership to OGP marks another notable step towards open government reforms. Yet the co-creation process for Morocco's fist OGP action plan lacked sufficient civil society and public input. This commitment aims to address these various open government challenges.

According to the government’s point of contact for this commitment, Ouiame El Moustamide, the portal is inspired by Spain's Transparencia portal. [55] Importantly, the portal will make it easier for the government to monitor ministries' response rate to access to information requests and proactive publication of information. The website will also provide a common space for citizens to view all information published by ministries by sector, including national statistics and OGP progress. Finally, the website will bring together civic participation opportunities into one common place. ^[56] At the time of writing, the website chafafiya.ma was operational and citizens are able to submit and track information requests. A YouTube video explains how citizens can use the portal to make an information request. However, the website is currently only available in Arabic and does not yet contain a civic participation component. [57]

If fully implemented, this commitment is expected to have a moderate impact on Moroccans' access to information and ability to influence open government policies. This commitment is considered to have modest ambition because it does not introduce new mechanisms for transparency or civic participation but instead brings together existing initiatives on a shared website. If this commitment establishes an inclusive and sustainable process for citizens to influence open government policies, then it will be considered to have a greater open government impact. This commitment is verifiable and relevant to the OGP values of 'access to information' and 'technology & innovation for transparency & accountability' as it will increase citizen access to government-held information through a website. This commitment is also relevant to the value of 'civic participation' as it will facilitate Moroccans' participation in the OGP co-creation process and open government policymaking.

Next steps:

The IRM recommends that implementors consider the following:

• Partner with civil society to design information disclosure and civic participation processes, including portal useability and categories of information to be released.
• Provide online and offline channels to ensure inclusive citizen participation in open government policymaking. Online participation mechanisms should be partnered with offline options to avoid further marginalizing citizens without Internet access. The website and participation materials should be provided in simple language in Arabic, French, Spanish, and Amazigh.
• Establish procedures to ensure government consideration and public response to citizen input in a timely manner. Visible and punctual feedback on how the government incorporated citizen input into policies is essential to build the trust of Moroccans in the government's new participatory democracy efforts.
• Include information on the public policy formation processes, such as how decisions were made regarding certain policies, by proactively sharing ministerial notes, memos and meeting minutes that demonstrate the decision-making process and what decisions were reached.
• The government should proactively publish responses to categories of frequently requested information.

6. Transparency Portal

Substantial:

Aim of the commitment

This commitment aimed to establish an online platform that brings together various ongoing open government initiatives. These initiatives include a portal for citizens to submit and monitor access to information requests, channels for citizens to participate in the OGP co-creation process and policymaking, and proactive disclosure of data and information by the government. [62] This commitment is therefore connected to Commitments 1 through 4 on access to information and to Commitments 15 and 16 on civic participation in this action plan, as well as to Commitment 18 on OGP membership and progress communication plan.

Did it open government?

Marginal

Ouiame El Moustamide from the Department of Administrative Reform of the Ministry of Economy, Finance, and Administrative Reform [63] explained that the initial idea was for the creation of a single portal; however, during the implementation period, two portals were created instead: the Morocco Open Government Portal (gouvernement-ouvert.ma) and the Transparency Portal chafafiya.ma. The Open Government Portal publishes information on Morocco’s participation in OGP, on the progress of the individual commitments, on the work of the multi-stakeholder forum and the implementation committee, as well as on other Moroccan open government efforts. [64] Since the Open Government Portal (gouvernement-ouvert.ma) is also subject to Commitment 18 on OGP membership and progress communication, please see the details about it in the section on Commitment 18.

The Department of Administrative Reform officially launched the Transparency Portal chafafiya.ma [65] in March 2020. [66] The portal offers the possibility for every citizen or resident of Morocco to submit and track an access to information request and receive an answer from the respective access to information officer. The Department held trainings on the functioning of the portal for the members of the multi-stakeholder forum, [67] for trainers of central government bodies in October 2019, [68] and for trainers of local government bodies in July 2020. [69] Overall, this commitment was substantially completed.

Immediately following the full implementation of the Access to Information law in March 2020, the civil society organization Sim Sim 0 carried out a test of the portal by sending 80 access to information requests. [70] They received 11 positive responses and in a report outlined several deficiencies, such as the fact that requests disappeared from the portal after the expiration of their timeline, the lack of designated access to information officers for some institutions, the average response time in excess of the legal limit, and the impossibility of browsing through the requests and information received by other users. Zineb Bouzar from Sim Sim [71] explained that the Department rectified some of the technical problems, such as the disappearance of requests. However, ATI requests and the information in them are still not published openly, but are only available to the requester. [72] Sim Sim also tested the appeals mechanism and, through the portal, sent 63 complaints about the requests that didn’t receive an answer to the higher-positioned administrative bodies and to the Commission on the Right of Access to Information. None of these complaints received a response. [73]

Sim Sim also helped to address some of the deficiencies in the functioning of the portal by compiling a list of access to information officers on its platform Article27, [74] which allows citizens to find the respective access to information officer for more than 1,800 institutions, including some local government bodies, and to then use the Transparency Portal chafafiya.ma to send access to information requests directly to these officers.

It should be noted for context that the access to information law differs from international best practice in many respects, including the time period for response, by limiting the scope of the right to Moroccan citizens, and by setting restrictions on the reuse of public sector information. [75] Moreover, Article 6 of the law, which criminalizes conduct that “promotes false information, aiming to damage the reputation of individuals, compromises rights or impairs the public interest,” risks having a significant chilling effect on use and reuse of public information and public sector data. [76] The factors limit the commitment’s ambition and probably affect the early results of its implementation. A future open government commitment could be designed to address them and thus further align Morocco’s access to information rules with international standards and best practices.

Despite the problems, the Transparency Portal chafafiya.ma has received more than 3,600 requests for access to information to date, more than 2,300 of which have been processed. [77] Ouiame El Moustamide from the Department of Administrative Reform explained that various institutions and administrations have proactively published information on their sites. However, the information is not yet centralized on the chafafiya.ma platform. [78] Overall, the government’s efforts to establish the Transparency Portal and the Open Government Portal are very important steps and have significant potential to improve access to information in general and open government initiatives in particular. Some technical and organizational challenges, such as the ones detailed above, as well as the deficiencies in the access to information legislation, point to the conclusion that so far these are incremental steps rather than a big breakthrough for open government. Additionally, early results during the implementation period were likely limited by the fact that the Access to Information Law only took full effect in March 2020. However, several commitments in Morocco’s second OGP action plan continue to strengthen and expand access to information. This commitment will likely have a greater open government impact in the longer term provided the government remains committed to access to information reform under Morocco’s second action plan.