The Casablanca Community began discussing the draft work program, which includes the Council’s current vision and the projects to be carried out during the period between 2023 and 2028.
On Thursday, the permanent committees of the Collective Council of the Economic Capital began to study the draft work program for the community, although the elected body entered its second year; This makes the project contrary to the contents of the Communities Organizational Law 113.14, which stipulates in the third paragraph of its Article 78 that “the community’s work program shall be prepared in the first year of the Council’s mandate at the latest, in accordance with the directions of the regional development program according to a participatory approach and in coordination with a worker Employment, the region, or whoever is on his behalf.
The draft work program of the Casablanca Community raises a debate among the elected, especially with regard to the fair distribution of the proposed projects and the extent of their fairness to all provinces, as well as the extent of their respect for the rationalization of expenditures in light of the crisis that the Community knows.
In this context, Abd al-Samad Heker, head of the Justice and Development Party’s advisory team in the council, explained that what is noticeable about the project in general is that “there is not a single version, as at every meeting we come up with a new version that includes amendments and changes under the pretext of making agreements with some funding agencies; This is reflected in the content of the document that we reached before.”
Heker recorded, in his statement to the Hespress electronic newspaper, that the initial observation states that “there are indications that the issue of spatial justice has not been achieved; Considering that, as we followed in the previous sessions and what was approved in them, we find that some provinces know the ratification of agreements at a great financial cost, unlike others.
Regarding financing, the head of the Justice and Development Party’s advisory team in the council always added, “This issue has big questions, as the latest formula we reached indicates that its financial cost amounts to about 40 billion dirhams, in which the group’s share is about 7.7 billion dirhams, as they will borrow about 1.5 billion. dirhams, provided that a financial share of about 5.2 billion dirhams remains. We do not know where it will be provided from?
The same spokesman stressed that “things remain unclear until now, and we are waiting for the next meetings to clarify this, given that there are different numbers, according to the versions that we reach according to each meeting.”
For his part, Karim Klaybi, who belongs to the Authenticity and Modernity Party, which is part of the majority that runs for the council, pointed out that the draft work program looks good so far, and includes important projects for the economic capital.
However, Claibi, who was recently elected president of the Assembly of Deputy Mayors of the Provinces in Casablanca, recorded, in his statement to the newspaper, that the issue of spatial justice in distributing these projects to the various provinces of the city appears to be absent, indicating that these shortcomings in the draft work program will be remedied during Committee meetings in order to update it before it is approved and finalized.
For his part, Counselor Hassan Al-Salhami, representing the Party of Progress and Socialism, explained that the group’s draft program of action was absent from the initial reading of its contents, spatial justice in the distribution of projects in the provinces, as some are given priority while others are marginalized.
The advisor at the district level of Al-Hasani district stressed that the group is obliged to give importance to a group of districts that suffer from marginalization and fragility, despite the fact that they know a large population density.
Al-Salhami recorded that the group is also obligated to present the project to the provinces and discuss it with its members as they are the most familiar with their territorial influence and needs before it is approved within the council, indicating in this regard that Article 235 of the Organizational Law of the groups gives the provincial councils the right to express an opinion on the program for the part that is to be implemented in full. or partly within the provincial boundaries.