Rabat – King Mohammed VI sent a rousing message to participants in the National Forum on Senior Civil Service on Tuesday.
The text, which put innovation and practical solution proposals at the heart of modern public administration, reaffirmed the King’s “new development model”, his vision of a more “efficient” civil service, calling upon participants to uphold principles of integrity and fairness, and ensure accountability in Moroccan public service.
As senior officials in the country’s public service, the King told participants, they play a central and key role in helping the country face emerging challenges, and have a solemn obligation to not only meet the growing and varying needs of Moroccan population, but to also make sure that the country’s public administration is in line with the demands and requirements of new realities.
“Government agencies, at both central and local levels, are at a crossroads today. This means civil servants are expected to be actively involved in the country’s economic and social transformation process and support public policies and development projects in the country,” the King said, later reminding participants of what the goals of such a responsive and accountable civil service should be: “The aim is to meet citizens’ growing needs, promote social justice and guarantee a dignified life for all.”
The king, although critical of the inefficiency and lack of “practical” proposals, which have been major problems in Morocco’s public administration, took the conference’s theme- Restructuring the Senior Civil Service – as an opportunity to reaffirm his unwavering faith in the existing human competence, while calling participants’ attention on the need to reform government services by ensuring an “optimal use of human resources.”
In the face of new and emerging challenges, the King said, restructuring senior civil service is “an urgent matter” that will entail “upgrading performance”, improving available human resources, and promoting a “practical approach to local governance.”
“What I want, in fact, is for the civil service to perform more efficiently, to be in step with the changes the country is witnessing, to adjust to global developments and to contribute to efforts to rise up to the development challenges facing our country.”
While reminding participants that his “new development model”, the blueprint for his aspirations for a more developed and confident Morocco, cannot be brought to fruition without the support of a “thoroughly and profoundly reformed civil service”, the King presented good governance as an indispensable ingredient of economic transformation, suggesting that senior civil servants-who he said “represent the elite that helps manage public affairs”-resist corruption and be fully committed to “integrity, merit, transparency, and equal opportunity.”
“The aim is to build an effective administrative model that would not only be compatible with the characteristics of the desired development model, but that would also help meet current and future needs,” the King’s message concluded, arguing that the implementation of the new development model is dependent upon the espousal, especially by senior civil servants, of positive administrative values that uphold and foster a “result-oriented and contract-based” administrative culture, and promote “public interest, regional equity and social cohesion.”
