Morocco is preparing to enter the era of the digitization of its public administration with the launch of the National Administration Portal (PNA) which should simplify administrative procedures for citizens, businesses and administrations. The launch is expected at the end of March.
The administrative procedures and formalities will now be codified and will be in line with Law 55.19 on the simplification of administrative procedures, which will also allow the administration to continue if it does not respect the set deadlines. This new law gives power back to the citizen in the face of several abuses and obstacles encountered by citizens in the face of the Moroccan bureaucracy.
Established following royal directives within the framework of the Speech from the Throne of July 2018, this law aims to reconcile the citizen with his public administration, accused by all of his lack of performance. King Mohammed VI himself attacked this public administration and the public sector in general in several of his speeches.
Indeed, while King Mohammed VI had shown an interest in initiating transformations in the public sector, in recent years, he clearly demanded profound transformations and reforms in the public sector. This demand was more supported in his last speech on the occasion of the opening of the autumn parliamentary session in October 2020 in which he criticized public institutions by comparing them to an obstacle to the development of the Kingdom.
“State institutions and public enterprises must show an exemplary attitude and act as a lever for development, and not as a brake,” he declared. “Given the strategic importance of these institutions, We call for a substantial and balanced redefinition of the sector”, urged the Sovereign.
He added that “the success of the economic recovery plan and the establishment of a new social contract require a real change in mentalities and a real change in the level of performance of public establishments”.
Announced objectives
“The bill aims to simplify administrative systems and procedures as well as to determine the principles and rules governing the latter”, indicates the document relating to the law on the simplification of administrative procedures.
In addition to the digitization and dematerialization of procedures, the project defines the maximum duration of the processing of administrative requests from citizens to avoid any abuse and establishes their right to appeal in the event that the administration does not respond to their request within the deadline. assigned or not answer the negative.
The administration will also be required to digitize all these procedures and the results thereof in order to promote a more fluid exchange of documents and acts between the various administrations.
With this new dematerialized administration, citizens will be able to file and find all their documents online in the same place, with a history of their administrative procedures and acts. He will also be able to follow up on his current requests, and file appeals in the event of a problem.
The main novelties of this project
The National Administration Portal (PNA) will be at the center of this ambitious project and it will be at its level that all the procedures will be done, unless there is a competent service for the processing of a specific data. And even in this case, the PNA should redirect the citizen to the appropriate site or portal.
The new portal brings several novelties in the future relationship between the citizen and the Moroccan administration which, from the launch of the portal will be required to respect deadlines and the citizen will also have material evidence of the non-satisfaction of his requests.
On the portal, all the information that the citizen will need will be available, in particular the required documents, the processing times of the procedures, or the costs and there will also be the possibility of paying online.
With this law, users will be able to receive a receipt for each service, which will allow them to justify exceeding the legal deadline set at 60 days and 30 days for investment projects.
Beyond this period, if the administration does not follow up on the request, it will be taken as an approval. Indeed, the text indicates that the “silence” of the administration is considered an approval.
In addition, the user will no longer be required to present several copies of his file, only one will suffice. The law also provides for the removal of signature legalization for all administrative files and the end of certified copies except in specific cases.
