Suppression of Some Public Enterprises is Carried out 'With Diligence', Minister Says

04 September 2020 Printable Version

Rabat - The operations to suppress some public establishments or enterprises will be carried out "with diligence" and "in cooperation" with the concerned parties concerned, said Minister of Economy, finance and Administrative Reform, Mohamed Benchaaboun.

Regarding the elimination criteria, the preparatory work were based on various analyzes and recommendations formulated in the reports issued by several control bodies, including the Parliament, the Audit Court, the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF) and bodies in charge of financial control or external audits within the ministry, Benchaaboun pointed out in an interview published Friday by "Finances News".

The major criteria for the elimination of public entities "mainly takes into account the nature of the activity of the concerned establishment in terms of relevance and potential for synergies/optimization", he explained.

There will also be merger operations that will generate strong synergies to free up financing margins and offer new opportunities, the minister said.

"Beyond the criteria, we will ensure that the decisions that will be taken in this area contribute to the optimization of public action as a whole, to the enhancement of the tangible and intangible capital of the entities concerned and the development of synergies," he added.

The minister did not rule out recourse, in the context of restructuring actions to be carried out, either to voluntary departure operations compensated under adapted social plans, or to redeployment of human resources to other public bodies (ministries, public establishments, etc.).

Nevertheless, safeguarding the rights of the human resources concerned remains "a central and constant concern" in the preparation and implementation of the restructuring operations under preparation, he underlined.

The public sector's own funds, which exceed 600 billion dirhams, will constitute "a valuable lever if we put order in the logic of piloting the sector by distinguishing between commercial public establishments and those exercising administrative and social missions".

Also, the optimizations of the investment programs (more than 70 billion dirhams of annual investments made mainly by the commercial public establishments) and the pooling of resources are "sources of savings and efficiency gains", Benchaaboun stressed.