Digitalization of Administrative Acts and Procedures (MO0028)

CHALLENGE There is a lack of transparency in the procedures and formalities related to the administrative decisions adopted to provide the services to users and oversee their relationship with the administration in order to protect their rights, which implies a lack of trust in the administration and the spread of corruption. This is due to several factors: • There is an absence of regular and instantaneous transcription and publication of formal procedures related to administrative decisions; • The non-existence of a national, exclusive and consolidated database of administrative acts issued by public administrations; • There is no obligation for the public administration to comply with the formal procedures released through the available means of publication; • ▪The complexity, redundancy and overlap in the processes and formalities related to administrative acts ; • Lack of digitalization of procedures and formalities related to administrative acts.

PROPOSED SOLUTION In order to resolve these issues and to frame the overall relationship between users and the administration, the law No. 55.19 on the simplification of administrative procedures and formalities has been promulgated and entered into force on September 28, 2020. This law aims to establish new rules for the relationship between the beneficiaries and the administration and to strengthen this relationship through a set of new provisions, the most important of which are: • ▪Establish the principle of transparency in procedures and formalities relating to administrative acts and establish the obligation to have a legal framework for these acts ; • Impose on administrations the identification, documentation and transcription of administrative acts under their areas of expertise, and their publication on the national portal of administrative procedures and formalities ; Require administrations to provide a receipt of deposit to the beneficiary upon submission of his request ; • ▪Administrations are required to set a deadline to respond to beneficiaries requests ; • Beneficiaries are guaranteed the right to appeal in the event of an unfavorable response from the administration or when the administration exceeds the time limits for processing administrative acts. This law will be gradually implemented over a 5-year period starting from the date of its enactment. In this context, the following actions will be carried out between October 2020 and June 2023: • Collecting and approving administrative acts by the national commission for the simplification of administrative procedures and formalities • Posting the approved administrative acts on the national portal of administrative procedures and formalities • Simplifying procedures and formalities related to administrative acts through : » The standardization of administrative procedures and formalities and the removal of non-justified procedures ; » The reduction of the cost of these procedures for both the beneficiary and the administration » Taking into consideration the reasonability between the topic of the administrative act and the documents requested by the beneficiary ; • Begin with the digitalization of a first batch of the most used procedures and formalities, with the aim of completing the digitalization process of all administrative procedures and formalities by 2025 ; • Develop and carry out a communication plan to promote the implementation of Law 55.19 related to the simplification of administrative procedures and formalities.

EXPECTED RESULTS Strengthening transparency through the launch of a unified national portal dedicated to the publication of administrative procedures and formalities, to be used by the administration and beneficiaries; • Improvement of public services quality through the simplification and digitalization of a first batch of the most used administrative procedures and formalities.

PERFORMANCE INDICATORS • ▪Number of administrative acts transcripted ; • ▪Number of approved administrative acts by the national commission and published on the national portal ; • Number of simplified procedures and formalities ; • ▪Number of digitalized procedures and formalities.

IMPACT INDICATORS Number of legal appeals related to administrative procedures and formalities ; • Rate of user satisfaction regarding the quality of public services▪

See action plan for milestone activities.

Action Plan Review

Commitment 4. Publication, Simplification and Digitalization of Administrative Procedures and Formalities

● Verifiable: Yes

● Does it have an open government lens? Yes

● Potential for results: Modest

Results Report

Commitment 4. Digitalization of Administrative Acts and Procedures

Commitment 4: Digitalization of Administrative Acts and Procedures [Ministry of Digital Transition and Administrative Reform]

Context and Objectives:

This commitment aimed to streamline and standardize administrative procedures, which make up a significant portion of the interactions between citizens and the government. In doing so, the commitment aimed to reduce opportunities for corruption, improve administrative services, and strengthen trust between the public and the administration.

The commitment specifically aims to implement Law 55-19 ^[15], enacted on March 19, 2020, following Decree no. 2-20-260. ^[16] The law introduces key provisions for the transcription, documentation, simplification and publication of administrative acts, imposing maximum processing deadlines, requiring the provision of a delivery receipt to users, adopting the principle of silence as consent, and safeguarding users' right to recourse. The legislation further emphasizes the digitization of procedures and establishes the national portal IDARATI.MA ^[17] for the publication of approved acts. A national commission chaired by the Head of Government oversees strategy for simplifying procedures, monitoring progress of digitalization, and supervising user satisfaction surveys. Two guides to simplify the law were published, one for practitioners and one for the public. ^[18]

This commitment provided a roadmap to implement the law and address challenges rooted in the lack of transparency surrounding administrative acts and their impact on user-administration relationships. Issues include the absence of timely transcription and publication, the absence of a comprehensive national database, non-compliance by public administration with published procedures, process complexity, redundancy, and a lack of digitalization.

This commitment builds on commitments 8, 9, and 10 in Morocco's 2018-2020 action plan. Under the previous plan, the legal framework for simplification and digitalization of administrative procedures was established, the IDARTI portal was piloted, and the Chikaya.ma public service complaint portal was launched. ^[19]

Early Results: Moderate Results

This commitment has achieved moderate results in strengthening transparency and accountability of administrative procedures. According to the former General Secretary of the Ministry of Digital Transition and Administrative Reform this reform aimed to reduce opportunities for corruption by making government procedures clearer, more streamlined, and publicly accessible. When procedures are opaque and complicated, it creates opportunities for corruption; simplification and transparency help to mitigate this risk. ^[20] Morocco ranked 97th out of 180 countries in Transparency International's 2023 Corruption Perception Index. Morocco's score has steadily decreased from its highest of 43 points out of 100 in 2018. However, Morocco retained its score of 38 points in 2022 and 2023. This suggests work remains to rebuild Morocco's score back to the global average of 43 points. ^[21]

The National Commission compiled and validated administrative acts (milestone 1). As a result, 2,700 procedures are now cataloged on the IDARATI.ma portal. The portal was first launched in 2021 with 1,700 procedures (milestone 3). ^[22] This is a significant improvement compared to the previous service-public.ma, which had only 900 procedures until 2021. ^[23] As a result of this reform, the government can now only request documents from citizens that are published on the portal. This incentivizes comprehensive digitalization of government services, marking a positive shift in practices and policies governing administrative procedures.

Milestones aiming to simplify administrative procedures, particularly in the investment sector, were completed. ^[24] Over 22 administrative procedures in the investment sector were simplified, digitalized, and published through the platform cri-invest.ma (milestone 4), ^[25] resulting in a 45% reduction in the volume of documents due to investors and mitigating the complexity of the processes (milestone 5). The collaborative effort involved the 12 regional investment centers (CRI) across the country and 12 regional communication and awareness-raising meetings had been organized ^[26] (milestone 2).

According to the commitment holder, the Chief of the Simplification of Procedures and Ethics Support Department, opportunities for improvement are highlighted by the mixed feedback and negative cases reported, especially from the 3737 Call Center. This prompted an investigation in 2022 that revealed a 60% positive response rate from a sampled group, suggesting that there remain issues to address. ^[27] The need for optimization, simplified language, content reorganization, and improved access to certain features reflects constraints in achieving significant results in the short term. Yet compared to the baseline at the time of co-creating the commitment, there has been a notable improvement in the practices, policies, and institutions governing administrative procedures, as citizens now have access to a unified platform.

The Chief of the Simplification of Procedures and Ethics Support Department ^[28] stated the tight deadlines imposed by the law, requiring the identification and transcription of procedures from approximately 120 administrations within a six-month timeframe presented a challenge. Additionally, the absence of information in some administrations, despite existing procedures, poses a difficulty, necessitating each procedure to be officially transcribed with a legal reference. On a technical level, the major challenge was developing the idarati.ma portal within the same six-month period, dictated by the law. Accompanying all these administrations proved complex with a limited team. These obstacles highlight time pressure, the need for information in certain administrations, and the technical and human challenges faced during the commitment's implementation.

In an interview, the President of the Regional Observatory for Access to Information (ORDI), highlighted the IDARATI project's potential to simplify administrative procedures. However, he emphasized the lack of communication about the platform, which is crucial given its impact on citizens' daily lives. "Making the platform known should be the administration's primary role, to move beyond just developing platforms that don't impact the citizen," he noted. ^[29] Previously, accessing procedures required visits to various administrations or navigating each website. Now, IDARATI consolidates many procedures on a single platform. Yet, without adequate communication and prior consultation, these efforts risk missing their mark on the public.

Despite these challenges, the commitment demonstrated progress towards improving transparency and simplifying administrative processes. While the quantity of simplified procedures had a moderate scope, there is evidence that efforts will continue and that this reform could lead to more significant changes in the long run.

Looking Ahead:

The commitment to reforming administration, particularly through the IDARATI portal, remains a crucial area for Morocco's ongoing efforts to improve public services and streamline administrative processes. IDARATI could benefit from the increased budget allocation to the Ministry under the 2024 Finance Law. ^[30] It is expected that this commitment, with its substantial impact on everyday interactions between citizens and government services, will maintain its relevance and possibly be included in future action plans.

To further advance this commitment, Morocco might consider enhancing user experience, optimizing platform functionality, and ensuring effective communication strategies to increase public awareness and usage of the portal. Continuation of these reforms can also include strengthening stakeholder collaboration and maintaining a focus on simplifying procedures. Importantly, there remains opportunity to ground this reform in broader anti-corruption efforts. For example, by prioritizing digitalizing procedures most prone to corruption and aligning the reform within broader anti-corruption strategies.