Local government civil service: The weak link in decentralization

Poorly distributed, poorly regulated, and increasingly costly, the local government civil service is struggling to keep pace with the ambitions of advanced regionalization. The assessment by the Court of Auditors highlights persistent structural imbalances and the urgent need for reform, both for the efficiency of public services and for budgetary sustainability.
At the heart of the advanced regionalization project, the local civil service was intended to be a lever for proximity, performance, and territorial equity. However, nearly a decade after the launch of this reform, the findings of the Court of Auditors reveal a more nuanced reality: that of a fragmented system, insufficiently managed and still largely ill-suited to the new responsibilities devolved to local areas.
The first warning sign is the geographical concentration of staff. Nearly 60% of civil servants are concentrated in just four regions, reflecting a human resources allocation poorly aligned with the diverse needs of different areas. This situation fuels persistent disparities in administrative capacity, to the detriment of the least well-resourced regions. Yet these regions are expected to play a greater role in local development.
These imbalances are compounded by a structural weakness in management at the local level. While managers represent nearly 67% of the central government workforce, their share drops to 33% in local authorities, where operational staff predominate. Regions, in particular, concentrate only about 1% of available human resources, illustrating the difficulty in equipping them with the skills necessary to effectively exercise their responsibilities.
Nevertheless, these vulnerabilities persist in a context of a marked increase in the wage bill. Between 2018 and 2023, the number of civil servants in the national and local government sectors decreased by 3.2%, while the wage bill increased by 26%. In 2023, it reached over 222 billion dirhams (USD 25 billion) , representing 57% of the national operating budget and nearly 48% of that of local authorities. This increase is primarily due to general salary increases, improved career paths, and expanded responsibility allowances. However, this has occurred without a proportional improvement in the performance of services provided, transforming the wage bill into a source of budgetary strain rather than a lever for efficiency.
Khadija MASMOUDI