Positive Handling of Petitions Can Strengthen Citizen Confidence and Relieve Government Actors
Rabat – The positive treatment of petitions submitted to public authorities is likely to strengthen citizens’ confidence in this mechanism and lighten the burden on government actors, said Thursday the Minister Delegate in charge of Relations with Parliament, government spokesperson, Mustapha Baitas.
Answering journalists’ questions at a press briefing following the weekly meeting of the Government Council, Mr. Baitas considered that the record of petition submission is “very low”, stressing the importance of encouraging associations to organize training in this area and intensifying cooperation between the government and parliament for the realization of the demands contained in these petitions.
He added that the draft decree establishing the composition, powers and operating procedures of the Petitions Committee, adopted on Thursday by the Government Council, includes new amendments aimed at simplifying the conditions for exercising the right to petition public authorities, in addition to the adoption of digitalization in this area in order to facilitate the collection of signatures of people supporting the petition and the submission of these petitions to the authorities concerned.
Responding to a question on the governance of support provided to associations, Mr. Baitas announced that a draft decree is being prepared, setting out the conditions for benefiting from public support intended for associations, specifying that this draft decree aims to make the publication of the call for tenders on a single electronic portal mandatory and to facilitate associations’ access to government support through requests made electronically.
It will also enable the relevant government department to monitor the forms of support payments and to develop prospective programmes relating to the amounts of support to be mobilised, Mr Baitas added.