The Secretary General of the Ministry of Economy and Finance signed Wednesday, July 3rd 2013 in Casablanca, a Memorandum of Understanding with the President of Mundiapolis University in order to promote cooperation in the field of budgetary transparency. The signing of this memorandum took place at a conference organized by the Mundiapolis University in partnership with MEF and in collaboration with the World Bank, under the theme: "Morocco`s ranking in fiscal indicators."
During this event, the Secretary General of the MEF, Mr. Khalid Safir and the Deputy Budget Director Mr. Abdeslam Benabbou, presented the general guidelines of the MEF for fiscal reform aiming at improving the transparency and the `budgetary efficiency.
Therefore, the Secretary General stated that the reform initiated by the MEF aims first to meet the requirements related to the need to meet the expectations of citizens, especially after the adoption of the Moroccan new Constitution devoting the institution of the right to information (Article 27) and the government budget balance (Article 77). Secondly, it aims to enhance the openness of the national economy in an international context by accelerating the process of globalization of trade with its implications on the competitiveness of economies.
The Secretary General also recalled the special attention the MEF attached to the Governance of Public Finance, through the consolidation of fiscal discipline, enhancing the economic efficiency of public expenditure and the development of fiscal transparency.
On this occasion, Mr. Safir recalled Morocco`s significant progress as for the open budget survey 2012, and noted that the MEF is committed to increase efforts to improve Morocco`s different rankings.
In his speech at the panel on fiscal transparency in Morocco, Mr. Abdeslam Benabbou reported on the efforts made by the MEF to improve Morocco`s ranking.
As such, Mr. Abdesslam Benabbou first presented a definition of the Open Budget Index (OBI) before explaining the Index calculation method and gave some figures on Morocco`s results in the (OBI). The Deputy Director of the Budget also expressed the recommendations of the International Budget Partnership (IBP), and the main achievements of the MEF in accordance with these recommendations.
Finally, Mr. Benabbou presented the prospects for improvement with the reform of the Organic Law of Finance (LOF) through modifying the respective schedules of the preparation of the Finance Bill and the review and vote of the finance settlement bill, continued efforts to reduce the delay in the preparation of the finance settlement bill and their presentation to Parliament, as well as providing more information to Parliament.