The reform of the control system of public expenditure seeks to improve the management and development of the culture of effectiveness, said on Thursday Minister of Finance and Privatization, Fathallah Oualalou.
Oualalou, who opened in Rabat a study-day on the reform, stressed that it will concern budgetary presentation and development of the culture of effectiveness in public expenditure. It also seeks the creation of professions related to the performance assessment.
"The reform constitutes a challenge for all of us in order to ensure the rise of competence in managing and controlling public expenditure," Oualalou explained, noting that this project targets two fundamental objectives. They are the internalisation of the control of regularity for the controllers and the evaluation of their services on the performance of expenditure.
Concerning the first objective, the minister announced that "contrary to what appears, it is not about removing the control of regularity, but to gradually transfer the responsibility to controllers and institute a suitable follow-up programme of control".
As for the second objective, Oualalou highlighted that it is about "making the controllers more responsible as to the performance of expenditure. It is a question to help the administration as a whole to shift from a culture of means to a culture of results".
He invited the Secretaries General of the ministries to familiarise their control services with the contents and the methods of reform, promote their reorganisation. "They have to make available all the necessary resources to cooperate with the departments of the Ministry of Finance and Privatisation in charge of carrying out the different parts of the reform, and give priority to the human and financial investments," he said.
The reform, which covers over the 2006-2013 period, is inspired from the best international practices, while taking account of Morocco's historical, structural and human specificities.
It will bring about deep changes of a structural and organisational nature, such as a strong collaboration between the General Control of Engagements and Expenditure (CGED) and the General Treasury of the Kingdom (TGR). This will, in turn, have a positive impact on all the Kingdom's administrations.
In addition, Oualalou stressed that his department's strategy "seeks to foster sustainable development for the country, safeguard macro-economic stability. It aims at improving the quality of the services provided, reinforcing the effectiveness of the administration, rationalising expenditure, and developing decentralisation and the logic of proximity."
The implementation of this reform will be done in three stages.
The first stage (Spring 2006-2007) will link the organisms of control (CGED-TGR networks), define the hierarchical control, generalise the budgetary reform, organise the transfers of competence concerning the control of application, and determine the methods of audit of management capacity.
The second (Spring 2007-2011) is devoted to the intensification of the transfers of competence and the reinforcement of the budgetary reform.
The third stage, which covers the 2011-2013 period, will be a time to put the finishing touches on the reform.
© Morocco Times 2006
