Public procurements: Observatory soon to be set up
The last Government Council meeting of Thursday, March 14, 2024 adopted the decree concerning the creation of the Moroccan Observatory of Public Orders (Observatoire marocain de commandes publiques), recommended by the Development Model published in 2021. The Special Commission that drew up the report had confirmed the need to enhance the transparency of public orders through the regular publication of indicators and data relating to these orders. With this in mind, the decree establishes the Observatory within the Ministry of Finance.
The Observatory is chaired by the Kingdom’s Treasurer General. It is therefore Noureddine Bensouda who will be at the helm.
According to the memorandum presenting the decree, the Observatory’s creation will help to achieve several goals. Firstly, to collect, process, analyze and publish information relating to public orders, while developing and updating a national database of these orders. Secondly, to encourage consultation and the exchange of information between the players involved. It will also be necessary to establish indicators to monitor the efficiency of public order execution, and to produce accounting, financial, and economic information for dissemination by all available means. Finally, the Observatory’s creation will contribute to the analysis of the economic impact of public orders.
The decree defines the composition and operating procedures of this observatory. In preparing the decree, the Ministry of Finance took into account the opinion of the National Commission on Public Procurement (Commission nationale de la commande publique), which reports to the General Secretariat of the Government (Secrétariat général du gouvernement, SGG). This was done on the basis of the decree on public procurement, revised in March 2023, on the basis of the law on delegated management, and on the basis of the law on public-private partnership (PPP) contracts.
According to the first article of the decree, a Moroccan Observatory for Public Procurement will be created within the governmental authority in charge of finance. This observatory will be responsible for monitoring public procurement contracts and agreements entered into by the national government, the regional or local authorities, the state-owned entities or any other legal entity governed by public law. The decree also covers contracts for the delegated management of public facilities and PPP contracts. One of the Observatory’s other missions is to approve the annual report on the results of its activities, which is prepared by the secretariat of the Observatory. It will also be necessary to ensure the publication of such report by all available means.
Mohamed CHAOUI
