MA-ASSET MANAGEMENT REFORM

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The Asset Management Reform Loan (AMRL) Project supports improved efficiency in public expenditures, by helping rationalize investment, maintenance and rehabilitation expenditures in education and health, and improve public asset management, in line with the objectives of the Country Assistance Strategy (CAS) for expenditure rationalization, long-term fiscal sustainability, and improved service delivery in the social sectors. The AMRL will help Morocco promote a reform targeted towards: a) a National Asset Management Policy; and, b) building Management Systems for the public Health, Education and Higher Education sectors. While the cost of maintenance and asset management can be high in the short term, its return in the longer term is high. Thus, the project will finance the short-term reform costs, and help fill the budgetary gap during the period of adjustment. Improving public asset management will generate efficiency gains, and medium-long-term savings, and improve the maintenance of properties. It will also serve to promote policy dialogue, partnership, and ownership, essential not only for the implementation of this operation, but also for the long-term reforms needed on overall budget and financial management. However, securing allocation of adequate resources for the purpose of public asset rationalization, and maintenance in future budget laws, remains the most difficult element of the operation, in view of the rigidity of the budget in Morocco. Nonetheless, this risk will be reduced as Morocco moves towards a medium term expenditure framework.