Morocco Advances Bill to Streamline Government Procedures, Set Response Deadlines

Concrete measures will be implemented as part of the draft law 55-19 on the simplification of administrative procedures, reports Al Ahdath Al Maghribia. With this law, the administration will now respond in writing, either favorably or negatively, to the user’s request within a period not exceeding sixty days. According to the same source, this deadline could be reduced to thirty days for requests to be determined by an organic law.

The administration will be required to justify and communicate the cases of refusal to the citizen by all possible means of communication. Another measure: the user will have a receipt of his file. This is a supporting document that will allow him to appeal against a decision of the administration or to consider the silence of the latter as an approval after the appropriate time.

The new law will also allow users to submit only copies of the documents in their file. In case of doubt, the administration could require certified true copies of the original documents, it is specified.