It was in 2002 that the municipal charter established the city unity system. The idea was to put in place new management bodies, namely a City Council that exercises all municipal responsibilities alongside the district councils as sectoral units responsible in particular for the management of local affairs vis-à-vis citizens.
At that time, the reform of the city's unity set itself several objectives, all ambitious. Their guiding principle aimed in particular to put an end to the dysfunctions of local management, through the improvement of the local governance system, the promotion of sustainable development, the rationalisation of financial resources, and the valorisation of human capital. On the eve of the next municipal elections, the evaluation of this experience is rather negative. "The experience of city unity has not been able to achieve its objectives. Particularly regarding the demarcation between the powers of the city councils and the district", a finding made during the conference organised by the Agdal-Hay Riad district council last Friday. Organised on the theme "City Unity: Realities and Perspectives", the meeting aimed to initiate the debate between local officials, elected representatives, academics, and citizens on this issue. Thus, Mohamed Reda Benkhaldoun, president of the Agdal-Hay Riad district council, could not have been clearer: "Suffering, that is the reality of what we are experiencing within the district council". According to him, the district council is facing major problems. "We are called upon to offer the same services to citizens, but according to the old system of the urban commune.
That is to say, in the same territorial jurisdiction and for a population that has grown", he explained. This is one of the mechanisms created by the municipal charter which established the districts in the same geographical area as the old communes resulting from the old 1976 system. The legal status of the district council decreed by law constitutes, in fact, one of these problems.
Article 101 of the municipal charter provides that the powers of the district council are exercised on behalf of and under the responsibility and control of the municipal council, among others, the examination and voting of the expenditure account on allocations and the administrative account of the district as well as investment proposals which must be submitted to the decision of the municipal council. Indeed, in the management of local affairs - its main mission - the district council could only issue opinions on issues falling within its territorial jurisdiction.
To this are added proposals and suggestions related to the affairs of the district. Powers that limit, in practice, and through the law, the initiatives that the president of said council would like to take. To prove this reality, Mohamed Reda Benkheldoun dropped a bombshell in front of the entire audience. "We do not have computers to work with. To do this, we bypass the law. We rent PCs with an option to buy to get donations". Mr. Benkheldoun took care to emphasise the financial means granted to the district council to carry out its actions. Here again, things do not please this PJD parliamentarian. "Like all districts, we do not have a budget, but simple allocations for the management of local affairs".
According to the text of the law, "the operating revenues available to the district council consist, exclusively, of a global allocation granted for the exercise of the powers conferred on the district by this law. The global allocation constitutes a mandatory expenditure for the commune. The total amount of the global allocation intended for the districts is set by the municipal council". On this aspect, Reda Benkheldoun advocates, in addition to the creation of an annex budget, the implementation of a contractual program to increase financial resources.
Some solutions
To deal with the various problems and promote the role of the districts, Mohamed Reda Benkhaldoun sees a way out in the strengthening of the powers of the president of the district council, especially those relating to his relations with his staff and the power to conclude partnerships. Among Mr. Benkhaldoun's proposals is also the need to establish a balance between the city council and the district.
The idea is to put an end to the overlapping of prerogatives. Also, this deputy did not spare the option of returning to the old system, that of urban communes, while abandoning the districts.
