Morocco Announces Public Sector Hiring Freeze Amid 3-Year Austerity Plan

The government did not wait for the approval of the amended finance law before announcing that there will be no recruitment in the public service in 2021. The note sent to the ministers by Saad-Eddine El Othmani was based on "the provisions of Article 47 of the organic law on the finance law requiring the programming of a general budget for the next three years".

Thus, the ministerial sectors and public institutions are required to update their three-year budget programming (2021-2023), with a focus on "the policy of rationalizing expenditure dictated by the repercussions of the health crisis," le360 reports.

Before this call, which confirms the implementation of the austerity policy, the head of government had already circulated a first note in which he had "defined the priority expenditures of the State and public institutions for the year 2020". The new guidance note, for its part, defines "the priorities of investment expenditures in ongoing projects, especially those that have been the subject of conventions before the King as well as those financed by donors". But priority will be given to Moroccan companies using local products, the same source specifies.