The Ministry of Economy and Finance revealed that the reserves of the civil pension system (70 billion dirhams) will be exhausted by 2028, and that to meet its obligations after that, the Moroccan Pension Fund will need about 14 billion dirhams annually to finance the system’s deficit.
The Supreme Court of Accounts (an official body for monitoring public finances), in its last report, urged initiating a structural reform of pension systems, by accelerating the pace of normative reforms, with the aim of bringing existing systems closer to a targeted and pre-determined system.
The pension funds witnessed their last modification in 2016 with the previous government headed by the Justice and Development Party, as it proceeded to increase the contributions of the state and civil government employees and gradually raise the retirement age from 60 to 63 years.
Shocking and ruthless repair
The head of the Democratic Labor Organization (an opposition trade union), Ali Lotfi, says that “the reform of the pension and civil pension systems that came at the hands of the Benkirane government in 2016, “was a shock and a severe blow to civil pensions and those involved in the Moroccan Pension Fund, and a significant setback on the gains in this field.” .
Although “the fact-finding committee came out with a diagnosis that the Moroccan Pension Fund knew imbalances caused by corruption and mismanagement, the Benkirane government took its unfair decision against state employees and public institutions, and imposed the retirement age to 63 years,” Lotfi adds to “Sky News website.” Arabic”.
The same spokesman warned that “if the government does not take quick measures and radical and comprehensive reforms to reform the four pension funds, the latter will find difficulties in disbursing the pension entitlements of millions of retirees and their beneficiaries.”
Among the reasons for this are the “development of demographic factors and the high rate of aging in Morocco, in contrast to a noticeable reduction in financial positions in the annual budget allocated to public administrations, and factors of mismanagement, governance and corruption in several funds.”
Consolidation of funds and raising the age
During a study day recently organized by the Parliament’s Finance Committee, several recommendations were proposed for the sustainability of pension or retirement systems in the Kingdom, among them grouping the retirement system into two poles, public and private, with the horizon of creating a unified system, and amending the regulatory texts to ensure permanence, which calls for raising the retirement age. or a duty to engage.
ineffective triad
Commenting on this, the former member of the Technical Committee for Retirement Reform, Muhammad Al-Hakish, believes that “the solution to the retirement problem by resorting to the pockets of workers, employees and employees through increases in contributions, raising the age and reducing pensions is not effective.”
Al-Hakish highlighted, in his speech to “Sky News Arabia”, that “this trinity that technocrats resort to, bears responsibility for the wage-earners, and reduces the standard of living of retired men and women.”
Relative crisis and possible bypass
In order to get out of this crisis, the former member of the Technical Committee for Retirement of Retirement believes that “the pension fund crisis is relative, and the possibility of overcoming lies in identifying the weaknesses in the measure, recovering the dues owed by the state to the Moroccan Pension Fund, and working on approving the operator’s share that is equal in all Regulations: The employee’s contribution is doubled, and the fund’s savings are used effectively.
The former member of the technical committee for pension reform also stressed that the current situation of pension funds can be bypassed, by “addressing the problem of unemployment to raise the number of activists.”
contain fragile groups
In the context of this situation and with “the growing aging and the decline in the availability of the job factor, and in the face of the fragility that characterizes the pension systems in Morocco, it was necessary to find formulas to contain the vulnerable groups of society that are not covered by the coverage by establishing a social safety net, and reforming the existing systems that are limited and weak The level of protection provided, in order to ensure the fairness and effectiveness of retirement systems”, highlights the Professor of Social Law at the University of Abdelmalek Saadi in Tangiers, Khaled Bukaish.
In his contact with “Sky News Arabia”, Boukaish said that “the Moroccan legislator’s awareness of the seriousness of this situation and his desire to benefit from the period of demographic privilege witnessed by the pyramid of age groups in Morocco, is what prompted him to adopt Framework Law No. 09.21 related to the generalization of social protection that defined the schedule. The timeframe for its implementation is 5 years (2021-2025).
The professor of social law explained that the step began with “the basic compulsory circular on illness 2021-2022, followed by the generalization of family compensation during the years 2023 and 2024, provided that participation in retirement systems is expanded and the benefit of compensation for job loss in 2025 will be expanded.”
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