Opinion

Strengthening the national plan for integrity

There are several implications and conclusions of the official visit made by HH Sayyed Fahd bin Mahmoud deputy Prime Minister for Cabinet Affairs, to the State Financial and Administrative Control Authority recently.

The agency is keen to strengthen its responsibilities to uncover matters that leads to a slowdown the process of economic development in the country by following up on abuses and violations that occur in public governmental and private institutions and companies. These violations lie in complaints and reports received from time to time to the agency, which are related to negligence, manipulation, violation of laws and regulations.

Today, new issues are added that the agency that need to be followed up, represented by the current generation’s suffering in obtaining appropriate jobs in various state and private sector institutions, in addition to suffering of some national workers from being laid off from work by the commercial institutions. The agency must also follow up the matter of increasing financial transfers abroad, whether from citizens or foreigners, in coordination with the financial and banking institutions that follow and supervise the work of these institutions. It seems that some expatriates have been very active in money transfers during the past years and to control the joints of the Omani economy through large commercial institutions, which requires identifying these issues to correct the wrong paths.

This visit, as emphasized in the official statement, comes as an affirmation of the government’s keenness on the importance of integration and institutional work, and to achieve effectiveness in implementing competencies and raising performance efficiency. It reflects the government's keenness to empower the Administrative and Financial Oversight Authority, strengthen its role in the regulatory system in the process of sustainable development, and enhance its role in integration and partnership with government and private institutions in eliminating the sources of corruption in different ways. The visit will have a major impact in strengthening the partnership between the various units of the state’s administrative apparatus in protecting public funds and enhancing integrity, besides giving a greater role to the oversight body in adopting best practices in the areas of oversight work, and creating an effective partnership between the agency and the Omani society.

Every official and citizen in the state has begun to emphasize the importance of the role of this agency in promoting comprehensive and sustainable development through the financial and administrative oversight operations it carries out and the preservation of national capabilities.

To enhance its role, the agency has adopted and developed a national plan to enhance integrity and combat corruption in all state institutions to serve as a reference tool in administrative and financial work for all. It has adopted international best practices in addition to its commitment to the requirements contained in the United Nations Convention against Corruption where the Sultanate joint in 2013 to enhance its efficiency in the use of available resources in the country. The duration of the implementation of the national plan to enhance integrity and combat corruption has been set for the period from 2022 to 2030 to include several axes related to creating a comprehensive legislative system, working with efficient institutional performance, creating an honest private sector, and working with full transparency and active community participation, in addition to the necessity of creating cooperation and effective partnership locally and internationally.

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