A Step Towards an Inclusive Digital Transformation of the Public Administration in a Developing Country: Evidence From Morocco.

Abstract

The digital revolution has fundamentally transformed everyone’s daily lives, and that includes the public administration, that finds itself in an interesting predicament, either to take advantage of these changes and therefore be committed to modernise its processes and services, or see itself become out of touch with the public, its main customer. With that, many studies enumerate the prowess of industrialised developed countries when it comes to the digitalisation of public services; but developing countries have entered the digital race as well, and a significant increase in digital public services’ use demonstrates the efforts made by public authorities in developing nations to meet citizens’ expectations, and to capitalise on the digital experience for the digital, social and financial inclusion. Taking Morocco as an example, the structural, organisational, managerial, digital and ethical reform of the public administration is at the heart of Morocco's societal project. With the aim of analysing the digitised public services scenery in Morocco and the impact of their implementation, a qualitative study was conducted in two of the most important public administrations of the kingdom, the General Tax Management Agency (DGI) and the National Agency for Land Conservation, Cadastre and Cartography (ANCFCC). The results show that transition to the digital age allows for improvements and that its impacts can already be observed, and that important implications of social and financial inclusion are to keep in mind, especially during a global pandemic.