The First President of the Court of Accounts, Zineb El Adaoui, said on Tuesday in Rabat that four main conditions have been identified – based on previous audit and evaluation missions- to ensure the successful upgrading of territorial areas and the reduction of spatial and social disparities, in line with the High Guidelines of His Majesty King Mohammed VI.
Presenting the activity report of the financial jurisdictions in their judicial capacity before both Houses of Moroccan Parliament, El Adaoui stressed that the quality of the design of integrated development programs is a key determinant of their real impact on citizens and territories. This requires the establishment of a precise territorial and sectoral diagnosis, based on an updated and integrated territorial information system, defining measurable objectives, and ensuring the effective participation of stakeholders, she explained.
She added that the Court of Accounts also recommends, when designing integrated development programs, taking into account the specific assets of each territory, its administrative subdivisions, as well as its sociological and cultural particularities.
In this regard, El Adaoui called for taking stock of the specificities of rural and mountain areas—particularly the dispersion of housing—by adopting effective and innovative solutions to meet the needs of the populations concerned. These include strengthening mobile schooling, promoting telemedicine services, and intensifying specialized medical caravan initiatives, while taking into account the specific needs of each beneficiary area.
She further emphasized the need for realism in program design and for avoiding the announcement of non-feasible projects, by ensuring that objectives and projects can be achieved within reasonable timeframes and within the capacity to mobilize the necessary financial resources. Such an approach, she underlined, would enhance the credibility of territorial planning, the reliability of public commitments, and trust in institutions. By way of example, she recalled that the implementation rate of projects included in the program contracts concluded between the State and the regions for the 2020–2022 period was barely 9%.
The First President of the Court of Accounts also noted that achieving the objectives assigned to territorial development programs requires the adoption of a more integrated approach, capable of strengthening upstream coordination among the various stakeholders and ensuring an effective link between funding and results. This, she said, would help accelerate implementation and enhance the impact of public financing.
El Adaoui noted that weak prior coordination, delays in the technical studies, failure to mobilize land within the required timeframes, as well as disparities in management capacities among territorial actors, are some of the main factors that have hindered the achievement of programmed objectives within the set deadlines.
Regarding the operation and maintenance of completed infrastructure, El Adaoui pointed out that neglecting these aspects at the program design stage has undermined the achievement of the expected objectives. She underlined that the financial jurisdictions found that delays or failures affecting several completed projects are due to the absence of a prior vision for their operation mode, the failure to designate the entity responsible for their management or maintenance, as well as delays in the acceptance of works and the conclusion of related agreements.
She also recalled that omitting maintenance and sustainability costs in the financial structuring of program contracts and agreements hampers the ability of the parties concerned to cover operating and maintenance expenses. In this regard, a thematic mission conducted in 2021 by the Regional Courts of Accounts reported operational difficulties affecting nearly 48% of projects, out of a total of 2,635 stalled projects.
On the social front, El Adaoui said that the Court of Accounts has continued, for the fourth year in a row, monitoring the implementation of the Royal project on social protection. To this end, an audit mission relating to Mandatory Health Insurance (AMO), as a major component of this project, was included in the Court’s annual program for 2024.
She explained that while the number of people registered in the AMO system increased significantly, reaching nearly 31.94 million by the end of 2024, the number of effective beneficiaries with active entitlements did not exceed 25.6 million—representing an actual coverage rate of around 70% over the same period.
El Adaoui noted that AMO schemes are experiencing financial imbalances, mainly due to the absence of effective cost-containment mechanisms. Expenditures rose by nearly 83% between 2022 and 2024, compared with an increase in resources limited to 36%. She stressed that the resources of these schemes are affected by several factors, including risks related to delayed or non-payment of contributions by employers, as well as issues concerning the reliability of declared data.
In this context, she pointed out that the public-sector employees’ scheme shows a continuous overall deficit since 2021, although it declined from MAD 1.51 billion in 2021 to MAD 861 million in 2024, alongside a drop in reserves to MAD 5.56 billion, whereas the statutory minimum threshold is set at around seven billion dirhams.
She also observed that the insurance scheme for professionals and self-employed workers recorded a surplus in 2024, which remains insufficient to ensure its sustainability, recalling that 2023 saw a technical deficit of around MAD 391 million. Meanwhile, the insurance scheme for persons able to pay contributions without engaging in an activity posted an acute deficit of MAD 425 million in 2024.
El Adaoui also noted that the “AMO Tadamon” scheme recorded a sharp increase in the expenditure-to-contribution ratio, rising from 16% to 94% between 2022 and 2024, posing a threat to its medium-term viability.
In light of the challenges facing the social protection system, the Presidency of the Court of Accounts renewed its recommendation to update and evaluate the system and beneficiary-targeting mechanisms, in accordance with the law on the targeting system for beneficiaries of social support programs, as well as to activate the National Registry Agency and its implementing decree.
She also stressed the need to periodically conduct evaluative studies on the effectiveness of social protection components—particularly those financed by the State’s general budget—calling for mobilizing and diversifying sustainable funding sources for all components of social protection, and for strengthening coordination between social protection policy and other economic and social public policies.
In this regard, the Court of Accounts recommends establishing a specific financial management framework for the AMO scheme, defining in particular the amounts of its resources and annual expenditures, enabling the monitoring of its balance and sustainability, and developing an integrated information system covering all components of the scheme.
It also recommends accelerating the program to develop and upgrade public hospital facilities, as a key lever for universal health coverage, in order to improve healthcare supply and the quality of health services in the public sector, which in 2024 accounted for only 9% of total expenditures reimbursed by the AMO system, compared with 91% for the private sector.
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