Over four out of five Moroccans view access to information on public contracts as “restricted”, says a poll

84% of Moroccans unveiled that accessing information about public contracts is very unlikely, a trend that is very prevalent across the African continent, according to a recent poll conducted by the pan-African network Afrobarometer.

The report noted that even though countries like Morocco, Tunisia, Sierra Leone, Ghana, and Liberia are members of the global Open Government Partnership and have voluntarily committed to transparent and accountable governance, over eight in 10 citizens believe accessing information about local public contracts is restricted.

Titled, “Veiled Transparency: Access to Public Information Remains Elusive Despite Progress on right-to-information Laws,” the findings revealed that only 14% of Moroccans consider that accessing a contract for a government-funded project or purchase is somewhat very likely.

In contrast, in Togo and Niger, 40% and 34% of citizens, respectively, reported easy access to local public contracts.

The poll, however, showcased that Morocco is among the 19 countries where support for public access to information has significantly increased between 2016/2018 and 2021/2023. The Kingdom witnessed an increase of 10 percentage points.

This makes it the third country in the African continent to undergo this positive change, lagging behind Madagascar (+17 points) and Botswana (+15 points).

As to access to local government development plans and budgets, 81% of Moroccan participants underscored that it is even more limited. This trend is prevalent across all surveyed countries, with overwhelming majorities in Congo-Brazzaville at 87%, Sierra Leone and Gabon at 85%, and Liberia at 80%.

Only 17% of Moroccans believe that accessing local government development plans and budgets is very likely, while Togo and Niger once again lead the rankings, with 39% and 38% of citizens, respectively, reporting easy access.

When it comes to accessing the local school budget, a staggering majority of 79% of Moroccan informants noted that it is restricted, with only 19% of them believing the opposite.

Niger and Zimbabwe were the only countries where the majority of respondents believe in easy access to information about local school budgets, with 52% and 51% in each country, respectively.