Public procurement and energy efficiency in Morocco
Between normative ambition and operational effectiveness
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.23882/emss26383Keywords:
energy efficiency, public procurement, legal effectiveness, life-cycle costing, sustainable public procurementAbstract
The Moroccan normative framework reflects a remarkable level of ambition. Energy efficiency is part of public procurement at every level: constitutional, strategic, legislative, regulatory. The 2023 Public Procurement Decree gives it a procedural base. Yet in the daily practice of public buyers, it disappears. This article follows that disappearance across the procurement process. Drawing on a sequential analysis of 46 tender files and a survey of 30 procurement actors, it shows where and how energy-efficiency requirements are neutralized. They are present when needs are defined. They fade at the admissibility stage. They are gone by contract award. The problem is not the law. The rules exist, and they are coherent. The gap lies at the meso level, the link, where legal ambition should turn into working tools. Public buyers, however, have no binding technical standards. Without these tools, they pick the bid closest to the reference price. Not out of negligence, but to protect themselves from oversight. The article proposes a reform on three levels. At the macro level, make regulatory requirements binding, step by step. At the meso level, build shared evaluation tools. At the micro level, give public buyers legal security. Without this alignment, energy efficiency will stay on paper.
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