“The commune of Salé is one of the exemplary communes that has been able to implement most of the axes of the local governance programme.”
The observation is made by Ilham Lahrid, communications officer for this programme funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Launched in 2010, the Local Governance Programme (LGP) aims to establish open and transparent local management, based on dialogue and the sharing of information between communes and their citizens, by relying on three major principles of governance: participation, performance, and transparency.
The programme includes activities focused on youth and gender as cross-cutting themes in collaboration with the General Directorate of Local Authorities (DGCL).
“While the Moroccan state is showing its willingness to moralise public life, the LGP has mobilised from the beginning to ensure that local management complies with clearly displayed rules and procedures, which guarantee citizen access to information, as well as the control and improvement of governance practices, thus contributing to the efforts of the DGCL,” adds Ilham Lahrid.
The commune of Salé has been able to fully benefit from the assistance provided within the framework of this programme. Indeed, according to the head of the strategic studies and communication division within the City Council, Mohammed Mansouri, the commune has been able to develop a three-year communal communication plan (2014-2016). The plan in question is based on 84 actions.
Among the planned measures, it is worth mentioning the establishment of a quarterly magazine dealing with the activities of the commune, the improvement of services offered by the website, and the creation of pages to communicate on social networks. The programme also focuses on improving internal communication and installing signposts within the council to facilitate the orientation of citizens and overcome the shortcomings and dysfunctions that characterise the internal and external circulation of communal information.
Furthermore, and in order to guarantee better transparency in the management of complaints, the commune has installed an entire department in its premises responsible for receiving complaints.
The creation of this service, operational for six months already, was accompanied by the implementation of a computerised complaint management system to ensure the efficient organisation of this function. “This service has allowed us to better respond to the grievances of citizens and regain their trust in their communes and elected officials, as well as to strengthen transparency at the local level.”
In this sense, since the establishment of this service, we have already been able to process 600 complaints, the processing time for which has been largely reduced, especially when it came to simple grievances that only involved the commune, such as delays in issuing authorisations,” stresses Mohammed Mansouri.
In addition to these various projects, the Salé communal council has initiated an internal audit that concerned three establishments. These are the wholesale market, the bus station, and the commune's tax administration.
While the first two services have already been the subject of reports that were presented to the president of the communal council in order to order the correction of the identified dysfunctions, the tax service is still subject to an audit since it is composed of seven managers. However, the same official stresses, the report concerning this aspect will not fail to be released shortly.
Conducted within the framework of a partnership with the General Directorate of Local Authorities (DGCL) of the Ministry of the Interior, the LGP was implemented from 2010 to 2014. In the field, the programme was carried out in close collaboration with elected officials and executives from 110 communes as well as with provincial executives, notably local authorities, and various
youth and women's associations.
Its main areas of intervention are the regions of Rabat-Salé-Zemmour-Zaër, Fès-Boulemane, and Doukkala-Abda, as well as some cities outside these regions such as Kénitra, Tangier, Benguerir, and Marrakech.
