2021 Draft Appropriation Bill: Priority for Health and Education Sectors (Official)

The 2021 Draft Appropriation Bill aims to give priority to the health and education sectors, by allocating an additional budget of 5 billion dirhams, announced, on Monday in Rabat, Minister of Economy, Finance and Administration Reform Mohamed Benchaâboun.

During his speech before the Committee on Finance and Economic Development at the House of Representatives, Benchaâboun stressed that the preparation of the said Bill covers a set of issues, adding that 5,500 openings will be reserved for the sector of health, up by 1,500 jobs compared to 2020, while 17,000 jobs will be allocated to the education sector (+2,000 jobs).

Benchaâboun also reported an increase in equipment expenditure of 717 million dirhams and 3 billion dirhams for the benefit respectively of the budgets of the departments of health and education, adding that the investment expenditure will be revised upwards by 850 Mln MAD for the health sector and 528 Mln MAD for the education sector.

Regarding the constraints and challenges related to the preparation of the 2021 Draft Appropriation Bill, the Minister noted some expenses that cannot be reduced, resulting in an increase of 8.5 billion MAD in the payroll (social dialogue, regularization of promotions, etc.), an increase of 1.5 billion dirhams for the organization of elections, an increase of 2 billion dirhams for compensation costs and 1.6 billion dirhams for the benefit of regions within the framework of the implementation of extensive regionalization.

“If we take into account all these data, there will be a total of 13.6 billion dirhams in the form of additional charges”, noted the minister.

Besides these irreducible expenses, the minister estimated that the year 2021 would see a drop of 20 to 25 billion dirhams in tax revenues against the backdrop of the repercussions of the crisis, stressing that these constraints imply the taking of measures capable of guaranteeing sustainability of financial balances and ensure the necessary margins to launch structural reforms for the post-crisis recovery.

Regarding the restructuring of Public Establishments and Enterprises (EEP), Benchaâboun highlighted the creation of a national agency for the strategic management of State holdings and the monitoring of the performance of public establishments to consolidate the role of the State as a shareholder, foster good governance at the EEP’s level, guarantee the strategic management of State holdings and monitor the operational efficiency of public establishments.