Morocco’s Court of Auditors Calls for Improved Consular Services for Expatriates

The Court of Auditors published its annual activity report for the years 2019 and 2020 in which it presented its state of play and its recommendations. It appears that, during the period 2015-2019, the average annual processing time for requests for the Electronic National Identity Card (CNIE) at the level of 49% of the consular posts exceeded one month, while the performance projects (PDP) provide for an average delay of 10 days for the issuance of this document. With regard to identity document services, they remain confronted with the obligation of manual maintenance of civil status registers and the personal delivery of identity documents, the report states.

Based on this observation, the Court of Auditors suggests that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs "make more efforts to enable the consular posts to provide quality services to the MRE through a global strategy, concerted between the main departments concerned by the consular services, on the one hand, and which defines the objectives, actions, expected results and responsibilities of each stakeholder, as well as the implementation of a monitoring and evaluation mechanism, on the other hand". It also calls on it to develop "an integrated and coherent consular strategy" and to improve the framework for measuring and monitoring the performance of consular services.

The Court of Auditors notes that the incentive measures for consular registration remain "limited". Based on a sample of 27 consulates, the rate of registered MRE does not exceed 41% compared to the estimated number of Moroccan nationals residing in the areas of these consular jurisdictions, it says, adding that the consular registration registers only allow to identify Moroccan nationals registered and who spend a long stay in the host countries. According to the Court, this problem is linked to the absence of a digital platform allowing Moroccans traveling abroad to provide their contact details, as well as those of the people to be contacted in case of need or emergency, and allowing the consulates to consult this database in crisis situations.

The report also indicates that the legal assistance of MRE in difficult social situations has not been operational since 2019. This service had been set up in 2014 by the Ministry Delegate in charge of Moroccans residing abroad. "The implementation of a crisis management plan at the level of the consulates is necessary," said the Court of Auditors. It therefore calls for the organization of training sessions for the staff of the consular posts on crisis management. This would allow the consulates to adopt a proactive approach in the event of major crisis situations and to ensure the provision of protection and social and legal assistance services for the benefit of the MRE.