New privatisation law will keep Omani employees safe

Muscat: Oman will continue to keep Omani employees safe even when there is a decision to privatise part of a government office, according to the Public Authority for Privatisation and Partnership (PAPP).
Dr Ibrahim Akkawi, an expert at the PAPP, said that protecting Omani workers is extremely important to the authority.
Akkawi told Times of Oman: "The most important part of the law is keeping Omani employees safe using either settlements or by integrating them into other jobs or departments."
Asked by Times of Oman about which of these two tools is more likely to be used, he said, "This will depend on the privatisation project."
Privatisation is a process by which the private sector can take over some of the public utilities offered by the public sector. When this is done, it is likely that the number of people working at the new company will decrease.
Al Akkawi added, "When a service is privatised, there will be downsizing. If an office had 300 employees and that is lowered only slightly, then depending on their specialities that can be a manageable number of jobs to integrate into the public sector elsewhere.
"However, sometimes the number is larger and these employees have highly specialised jobs, then it isn't as easy to integrate them into a different department," he added.
Al Akkawi added that no institution will be privatised until the process is authorised by the Council of Ministers. This means that privatising offices will be regulated and approved.
When the law was issued, His Excellency Darwish bin Ismail Al Balushi, Minister Responsible for Financial Affairs, stressed that privatisation and partnership are an economic necessity and a priority for achieving the future vision of the Omani economy and raising the wheel of development.
Al Balushi had said at the time: “The government has paid much attention to the private sector and has been the focus of its attention since the dawn of the Blessed Renaissance.
“The establishment of the Public Authority for Privatisation and Partnership is a step forward to allow the private sector to move market forces and competition, improve operational efficiency, provide financing needs, encourage foreign investment, and attract technical expertise.
“The central role of the authority is to activate privatisation and partnership initiatives and reduce the burden on the state budget. It is also considered a unified window for speeding up decisions in a more effective manner.”