Restructuring of the public portfolio under way
A new step has been taken in the restructuring of the public portfolio. The Ministry of Economy and Finance has just launched a call for candidates to fill the position of Director of the Department of Public Establishments and Privatization (DEPP), which will be vacant from the end of next November.
The main mission of the new director consists in initiating the reform of the public sector, a fundamental work mentioned in a royal speech. The new director will have to establish the necessary synergy with the National Agency for the Strategic Management of State Holdings and for Monitoring the Performance of Public Institutions and State-Owned Enterprises. Last July, the King appointed Abdellatif Zaghnoun as the first director general of this new public agency that he is setting up. The former boss of CDG (Caisse de Dépôt et de Gestion) embarked on the implementation, in particular by recruiting human resources and drawing up the budget necessary for the operation of this new entity. For the time being, the Agency is at the design stage of its strategic development vision aiming at making this project operational. This work is carried out in parallel with the framework law relating to the restructuring of the public portfolio, which includes a roadmap. What is planned is the establishment of an integrated program of reform of the sector of the State-Owned Enterprises (SOE) of which a portion is qualified as urgent. This program will be built on the basis of the overhaul measures, defined by the framework law, the aims of which are to resize the public portfolio, strengthen efficiency and professionalize the governance of SOEs. Added to this is the drastic limitation of recourse to the Government budget, the need to make the models reliable, and the emergence of large centers with the capacities required to face the challenges related to competition.
For the ministry, it is imperative to merge the Social Development Agency, the National Mutual Aid Agency (“Entraide Nationale” ), the ODCO (Cooperation Development Office), and the Compensation Fund into a single operator. The idea is to create a single and visible entity in charge of social actions instead of the many existing public establishments. Territorial development is not left out. The ministry proposes the dissolution of the three development agencies of the South, North, and Oriental regions. Their maintenance is no longer justified because of duplication either with other public establishments or with departments and local authorities.
All these elements confirm that a restructuring of the sector is imperative. For it, several actions will be taken. Indeed, for non-commercial and social SOEs, it will be necessary to carry out the reintegration of certain missions within the ministries concerned, after the liquidation of certain establishments whose maintenance is no longer necessary, underlined an official within the Ministry of Finance. Moreover, the roadmap proposes to group together certain establishments whose maintenance is justified. Examples of contemplated transactions are provided. This is the case of the infrastructure sector in transport and logistics.
Mohamed CHAOUI
