Integrity Portal (MO0007)

Setting up an integrity portal
From March 2018 to November 2019
Lead implementing agency/actor
Central Authority for Prevention of Corruption (ICPC)
Commitment description
What is the public problem that the commitment will address?
The Kingdom of Morocco has launched several projects to strengthen integrity, promote transparency, and fight corruption. However, communicating these efforts to the public is fragmented and limited. It is difficult to gather information on integrity and anti-corruption using one sole medium. Hence, establishing a national integrity portal will be a strong push. This project is specifically part of Axis 3, (“Transparency and Access to Information”) of the 2015-2025 National anti-corruption Strategy
What is the commitment?
The portal seeks to: - Familiarise the public with the achievements and national actions developed in terms of integrity, and highlight the efforts made by the various stakeholders working on integrity and anti-corruption, - Provide users with a knowledge base that comprises all the data on integrity and related issues (fighting and preventing corruption, transparency, accountability, conflicts of interest, ethics, etc.); - Direct visitors to the entire platforms developed as part of the creation of a national integrity system and the national anti-corruption strategy; - Enable visitors to express their expectations, suggestions and complaints regarding integrity through a participatory virtual space; - Identify actions to be taken by different stakeholders related to integrity and anticorruption. The impact of this commitment will be evaluated on the basis of the following indicators: - Number of institutions enriching the integrity portal; - Number of visitors; - Frequency of the portal’s update.
How will the commitment contribute to solve the public problem?
This anticipated portal must provide its future users with a sector-specified and thematic view of all programmes conducted by stakeholders specialising in integrity in Morocco. It will constitute a main point of access to information on integrity.
Why is this commitment relevant to OGP values?
The fulfilment of this commitment will strengthen efforts made to promote the principles of integrity, transparency, and good governance.
Additional information
The success of this project will depend significantly on the involvement and willingness of the stakeholders, considered as vital sources of information who guarantee the portal’s reliability and durability. Hence, special focus will be laid on the portal’s governance and management, especially aspects concerning the collection of data and channels for interaction, all of which fall within the framework of agreements concluded by the Central Authority for Prevention of Corruption with its partners.
Milestone Activity with a verifiable deliverable
Designing the portal
March 2018 November 2018
Identifying the portal’s content and services
December 2018 May 2019
Developing the portal
June 2019 August 2019
Preparing guides for updating the portal and organising training sessions for the partner government departments
September 2019 October 2019
Launching the portal
November 2019
Contact point details
Name of responsible person from implementing agency
Mr Abdellatif Mouatadid
Title and department
Director / Support Unit
Email and telephone
Email: mouatadid@icpc.ma Telephone: 0537578654 / 0661161260
Other actors involved
- Ministerial departments/government bodies; - Judiciary / Public Prosecutor’s Office; - Parliament; - Control, audit, and inspection institutions; - Royal Gendarmerie, Central Police Administration, Customs and Indirect Taxes Authority; - Territorial authorities/regional councils; - National institutions.
- Civil society; - Mass media; - Labour federations and unions; - International bodies (GIZ, UNDP, OECD, World Bank, DCAF, Council of Europe, etc.).

Commitment 7: Integrity Portal

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

“The portal seeks to:

• Familiarize the public with the achievements and national actions developed in terms of integrity, and highlight the efforts made by the various stakeholders working on integrity and anti-corruption,
• Provide users with a knowledge base that comprises all the data on integrity and related issues (fighting and preventing corruption, transparency, accountability, conflicts of interest, ethics, etc.);
• Direct visitors to the entire platforms developed as part of the creation of a national integrity system and the national anti-corruption strategy;
• Enable visitors to express their expectations, suggestions and complaints regarding integrity through a participatory virtual space;
• Identify actions to be taken by different stakeholders related to integrity and anticorruption.

The impact of this commitment will be evaluated on the basis of the following indicators:

• Number of institutions enriching the integrity portal;
• Number of visitors;
• Frequency of the portal’s update

Milestones:

• Designing the portal
• Identifying the portal’s content and services
• Developing the portal
• Preparing guides for updating the portal and organizing training sessions for the partner government departments
• Launching the portal"

Start Date: March 2018

End Date: November 2019

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 information about corruption and anti-corruption institutions, policies, and initiatives in Morocco to educate the public. The platform will also prove a space for citizens to submit information about instances of corruption and engage the government.

Morocco has made various efforts to combat corruption over the past decades. In 1999, the National Commission for Morality and Public Life sought to promote integrity and improve service provision. ^[58] Morocco ratified the United Nations Convention Against Corruption in 2007 ^[59] which, along with the 2011 constitutional reforms, paved the way for the 2009 establishment of the National Authority for the Probity, Prevention and Fight Against Corruption (INPPLC). The INPPLC's mandate is to (i) coordinate corruption prevention policies (ii) monitor their implementation (iii) collect and disseminate information in this area. [60] A 2015 to 2025 National Strategy Against Corruption aims to reduce corruption and increase citizens’ and the international community’s confidence in the government by 2025. ^[61] The National Anti-Corruption Commission published a report on the progress of the National Strategy between 2016 and 2018. ^[62] However, communication with the public about the government's anti-corruption efforts remains low. ^[63]

Despite these efforts, perceptions of corruption in Morocco remain high. According to the  Global Corruption Barometer in 2019, 53% of respondents think corruption has increased in the last 12 months and 74% think the government is doing a bad job at tackling corruption. ^[64] Citizens consider the judicial, health, law enforcement and public sector to be the most corrupt. ^[65] An internal study by INPPLC found that Moroccans perceive corruption to occur at much higher rates than it actually takes place. This dissonance makes it difficult for the government to use perceptions of corruption to measure actual changes in corruption in the country. ^[66] There is also an absence of a comprehensive picture of all anti-corruption actors and efforts in Morocco. ^[67] Bauke Baumann, Director of Boll Stiftung Organization, notes that there is very little public data on instances of corruption in Morocco, as the majority of cases are not shared publicly. ^[68]

Yassir Chokairi, Director of the Partnership and Development Department at INPPLC and the government point of contact for this commitment, states that the portal will include a national database of all cases of corruption, bring together all government communication on the topic, provide a forum for citizen engagement as well as an overview of all institutional actors. As a result, the portal will educate citizens on anti-corruption efforts, improve citizen perceptions, and enable citizens to better diagnose the issue and participate in government efforts to tackle corruption. ^[69]

This commitment is expected to have a minor potential impact on citizen access to information around corruption and anti-corruption efforts. This commitment will likely represent a positive but incremental step towards coordinated anti-corruption efforts. This reform is evaluated to have limited ambition as it does not introduce new information or civic participation opportunities, but rather reorganizes information into one online space. This commitment may prove to have a greater open government impact if it results in an established procedure for the government to accept, consider, and respond to citizen reports of instances of corruption.

According to data from 2019, around 74% of the population in Morocco uses the Internet. [70] Social media, particularly Facebook, is one of the main ways citizens seek information. ^[71] Therefore, all e-government initiatives throughout this action plan will only reach a segment of the population and will exclude marginalized communities unless complementary offline activities are included. CSO representatives interviewed view the integrity portal as a limited step. CSOs stated that the government should publish the number of corruption cases, including ongoing cases and accountability measures should be taken. Specifically, Azzedine Akesbi notes that there is currently no law to protect whistleblowers, which limits anti-corruption efforts in the country. ^[72]

This commitment is relevant to OGP values relating to access to information, to technology for transparency and accountability, and to civic participation as it seeks to increase citizen access to corruption-related information and engagement with corruption efforts through an online platform. This commitment is verifiable, as the milestones include simple activities such as setting up the portal and preparing guides for its use.

Next steps:

The IRM recommends that implementors consider the following:

• Partner with civil society to determine the scope and format of information to be shared on the portal to ensure it is relevant and useable for the public. Design material for multiple audiences, for example, raw statistics on corruption cases and outcomes in addition to picture and video summaries for a general audience.
• Incentivize ministries' participation in the portal by publishing clear guidelines and celebrating 'integrity champions.'
• Establish mechanisms for reporting cases of corruption, including a legal framework and procedures to process and publish the outcome of submissions.
• To raise the level of ambition, future commitments could focus on strengthening and implementing the legal and regulatory framework for corruption whistleblowers and asset declarations of public officials. [73]

7. Integrity Portal

Limited:

This commitment aimed to establish an online platform that brings together information about corruption and anti-corruption institutions, policies, and initiatives in Morocco to educate the public. [79] The platform would also prove a space for citizens to submit information about instances of corruption and engage the government. [80]

According to the government’s self-assessment the institution responsible for this commitment, the National Authority for Probity, Prevention and Fight against Corruption (INPPLC) made some first steps in developing the idea and project of the platform but did not complete the commitment. [81] The reasons for the lack of implementation listed by the government are the COVID-19 crisis, financial problems and a legal reform of Morocco’s anti-corruption law which changed some of the INPPLC’s functions and the vision for the online platform. [82] The future platform will have to additionally publish data from partner organizations and guaranty interoperability with the integrity Observatory of the INPPLC.

Transparency Morocco, [83] a civil society organization, noted some positive aspects of the legal reform such as the increase of the powers of the anti-corruption body in cases of criminal offenses. Transparency Morocco stressed that the independence of INPPLC and its ability to directly refer to justice are necessary for the success of its mission. However, according to Transparency, some persisting weak spots of the law include conflicts of interest, anonymous protection of witnesses, and the risks of blocking the body’s functions. [84] According to the government’s self-assessment, in the future 2021-2023 Morocco national action plan the INPPLC will continue and upgrade this commitment by establishing a national integrity observatory that includes an internal monitoring system as well as data from partners’ platforms. [85]