Government Spokesperson: The Emergency Program for Universal Access to Basic Services at Home is Unique

The Emergency Program for Universal Access to Basic Services in the Interior is unique in every way, whether in comprehensiveness, approach, preparation or implementation, said Mohamed Ould Essoidat, Minister of Public Service and Labor, acting government spokesperson, highlighting that it will cover 218 municipalities and will be implemented over 30 months at a financial cost of 260 billion old ouguiyas.

In response to a question on the subject, while commenting on the results of the meeting of the Council of Ministers on Wednesday evening at the speech room of the Mauritanian News Agency in Nouakchott, together with the Minister of Digital Transformation and Modernization of Administration, he stressed that the program was based on a participatory and interactive approach that involved all the living forces in each district (residents, elected officials, authorities…) with government missions, which supervised the process.

He explained that H.E. President of the Republic Mohamed Ould Cheikh EL Ghazwani preferred this approach to responding directly to citizens’ complaints that were presented to him during the electoral campaign, but he did not stop there, the Minister added, but gave instructions to the government to return to these provinces and listen to and interact with citizens, which has been implemented.

Regarding the implementation of the program, he said that the government has put in place a new mechanism to follow up on its implementation. The first committee is chaired by the Prime Minister, the second by a minister, the third by the governor of the state and includes elected officials, in addition to a provincial committee headed by the governor, stressing that the program will not affect the many development programs that the government will carry out at home.

For his part, the Minister of Digital Transformation and Modernization of Administration, Ahmed Salem Badah, while commenting on a statement about the “Ain” digital platform for receiving and processing citizen complaints and notifications, which was launched in October 2024 by Prime Minister Mokhtar Ould Ajayi to bring services closer to citizens in an easy, fast and transparent manner, said that this platform was the citizen’s eye on the services provided by government sectors, allowing them to raise all their issues, even holes in the roads or water pipes.

He emphasized that, for the first time in the country’s history, the services of every government sector have become available to every citizen, noting that this platform has so far processed and settled many files that have been pending for several years, with 96% of the requests processed, and work is currently underway to complete the remaining 4%.

He highlighted the successes achieved by the “Ain” platform since its establishment until now, as it has received about 9,000 cases between requests and complaints, focusing on basic services, with water at the forefront with 16%, followed by issues related to education 13%, the Ministry of Interior 12.5%, and equipment 8%, stressing that the platform has won the admiration of most citizens, as 52% of them expressed that the services it provides are of high quality.

The Minister said that the digitization sector is currently working in cooperation with other government sectors to launch 12 services in the near future, in line with the directives of His Excellency the President of the Republic to bring the administration closer to the citizen, as he is the cornerstone of everything, noting that citizens who do not know how to use smart devices, the sector will provide them with parallel options, such as opening counters in the municipalities.