Sunday 24 / November / 2024
Muscat: Proceeding from the keenness of the Sultanate of Oman to lay the foundations for national action and institutional integration in the field of integrity promotion and anti-corruption and raise the efficiency in the resource management to achieve sustainable development goals ,in light of the approval of the National Integrity Promotion Plan (2022-2030) by the Council of Ministers to fulfil the requirements of the international agreements and in line with the national objectives set in Oman Vision 2040 and the 10th Five-Year Development Plan, State Audit Institution organized an executive workshop on the National Integrity Promotion Plan held at SAI’s headquarters in Muscat on Wednesday, September 13, 2023.
The workshop was held under the patronage of His Excellency Ahmed bin Salem Al-Rujaibi, Deputy Chairman of State Audit Institution, in the presence of His Excellency Sayyid Dr. Munther bin Hilal Al-Busaidi, Deputy Chairman of the Oman Vision 2040 Implementation Follow-up Unit. The workshop was attended by a number of officials in the civil and military state administrative apparatus units in addition to representatives of civil society institutions and a number of SAI’s specialists.
The executive workshop started with the State Audit Institution speech delivered by Senior Audit Specialist/ Shabeeb bin Nasser Al Busaidi, General Director of Legal Works at SAI. During the speech, he stressed that the approval of the National Integrity Promotion Plan (2022-2030) comes from the keenness of the Sultanate of Oman to adopt the best international practices in all fields, emphasizing that the wise vision of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik represents the primary guide for state institutions to embody the principles of justice, integrity and proper resource management. Integrity and efficiency in resource management are considered the basic foundations for institutional development.
Then, visual presentations on the National Integrity Promotion Plan (2022-2030) and the mechanism for following-up the implementation of its objectives were delivered in the workshop. At the end, a discussion panel was held during which attendees inquiries and interventions were answered.
In this context, HE. Ahmed bin Salim Al Rujaibi, Deputy Chairman of the State Audit Institution, stated that the National Integrity Promotion Plan seeks to achieve its mission of adopting best practices in areas of integrity, transparency and anti-corruption with the effective participation from the public and private sectors, civil society institutions and individuals. His Excellency further stated that the plan includes four main principles, the first of which focuses on integrity by adopting principles and values of integrity and honest practices towards public fund and public office; whilst the second principle focuses on transparency through institutional disclosure based on principles of accuracy, appropriateness and reliability. The third principle deals with accountability by creating inclusive legislations and efficient procedures to activate accountability and the fourth principle addresses partnership, which can be achieved through active cooperation by all relevant parties.
Regarding the themes and objectives of the National Integrity Promotion Plan, His Excellency stated that the plan is based on five themes, from which six main objectives and twenty-one sub-objectives emanate. The first objective is on the legislative system and it aims to promote integrity and combat corruption in accordance with an inclusive legislative system and efficient human resources.
The second theme is on the efficient institutional performance as it targets institutional performance and services of high quality and efficiency ensuring justice and equality.
His Excellency also stated that the third theme of the plan is on integrity in the private sector and it aims to strengthen private sector’s contribution to the activities and programs of public fund protection and corruption prevention.
The fourth theme is on transparency and effective community partnership. It aims to promote integrity towards public fund and public office and combat corruption.
The fifth theme addresses effective local and international cooperation and partnership with the aim of coordinating efforts and activating local cooperation to promote integrity and combat corruption.
Regarding the added-value and target objectives of implementing the themes of the National Integrity Promotion Plan, His Excellency assures that the plan’s themes and objectives seek, in cooperation with state relevant entities, to achieve a set of general results at the national level during the period of (2022-2030). Those results are represented in achieving efficiency in combating corruption through active cooperation and positive contributions from the different sectors and the community, enhancing the efficiency of state institutions performance and proper resource management as well as improving transparency and access to information, and raising awareness of the community in general and between citizens in particular on the state institutions efforts exerted in boosting the performance efficiency and protecting the public fund . The results are also represented in enhancing active and competitive participation, reflecting the principle of partnership between the regulatory institutions and the community in promoting integrity and combating corruption, achieving general deterrence and preventive audit and adopting best regional and international practices on promoting integrity and combating corruption. The plan is expected to improve the Sultanate of Oman’s position in relevant global indicators and support the implementation of Oman Vision 2040 and other development plans in the Sultanate of Oman.
As to the governance of the National Integrity Promotion Plan, His Excellency pointed out that the Institution is following up and assessing the implementation of the plan by following up the implementation of the procedures by the relevant parties as per measurement and assessment indicators set in the plan. The Institution organizes bilateral or multilateral meetings and work sessions with entities concerned with the implementation of the plan
The plan includes an executive framework for procedures related to the themes, main and sub-objectives, containing a statement of the relevant parties for each procedure that specifies the time-frame for the implementation, in addition to the measurement and assessment indicators, which increase efficiency and effectiveness of following-up the plan implementation. He further added that the plan identifies a set of local and international measurement indicators that relate to the various themes of the plan, the most prominent of which is the Corruption Perception Index issued by Transparency International, Global Competitiveness Index issued by World Economic Forum and the Report on the Ease of Doing Business issued by the World Bank.
At the conclusion of his statement, HE. Ahmed bin Salim Al Rujaibi, Deputy Chairman of the State Audit Institution, stated that the National Integrity Promotion Plan is considered an integrated approach to achieve the highest level of efficiency in institutional performance, in addition to effectiveness in partnership activities between all sectors. He stressed the importance of institutional and societal partnership in raising the efficiency of the public fund use and promoting integrity, which raises the levels of achieving the target plan objectives and results towards sustainable development, under the wise leadership of His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tarik.
