Saturday 20 / April / 2024
Muscat: Started with the intention of promoting the values of integrity in public life, the State Audit Institution's TV programme “Nazaha” is now in its 4th Edition.
The Institution, SAI in short, continues its efforts and activities to instill the values of integrity towards public funds and civil service through its media and awareness-raising plan adopted to realise an optimal level of awareness and impartial institutional and social behavior.
The plan presents content via different audio-visual media, both printed and electronic and also organises seminars, lectures and local events. Besides, the plan focuses on partnership with State entities to execute specific activities.
The “Nazaha” programme, which started in 2017 as one of the primary tools of the plan, comes to promote integrity towards public money and public service.
Dr. Hemyar bin Nasser Al Mahrouqi, Director of Awareness and Integrity Promotion Department at SAI, stated that the programme hosts a number of their eminencies and sheikhs to talk about several subjects related to integrity towards public funds and public service.
He added that the programme would be aired on national television and radio of Oman during the Holy month of Ramadan of this year. The programme will be also disseminated in “Youtube” through SAI’s official account.
As for the primary themes of the programme, four main areas are highlighted. The first area is public funds and its inviolability and touches upon several relevant topics such as; public inviolability, bribery and legitimate earning.
The second area is about matters relevant to roles and responsibilities of public service such as; misuse of authority, reliable performance assessment, employee’s rights and duties as well as employment justice.
The third area touches upon general integrity values and its relevant topics, for instance, responsibility is a trust and self-monitoring.
The last area highlighted in the program is efficient use of resources that talks about professional capacity building, collaboration and effective use of financial resources.
Al Mahrouqi indicated that the selection of the topics was carried out after considering all the four main themes and prioritising subject matters based on importance that represent the messages SAI desires to communicate to community.
Regarding the objective and continuation of producing the program in its 4th edition, Al Mahrouqi said that awareness-raising programmes come in line with SAI keenness to adopt best practices in promoting integrity and fighting corruption.
SAI was assigned in 2014 the task of Anti-Corruption Agency in addition to following up on the implementation of the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC).
In the preamble, the Convention indicated the seriousness of corruption and its negative impact on societies and human development in addition to the significance of raising awareness and achieving effective social partnerships.
Al Mahrouqi added that program had a broad following and was aired in its 3rd edition in 10 national television and radio channels, 35 times a day.
The circulation of the programme videos of all the previous three editions reflects how close the content was to society’s interests.
Therefore, SAI continues on producing the programme aiming to foster a culture of integrity and righteousness towards public property through raising awareness of the legitimate rule on relevant issues, telling several stories and incidents, stating the impact of halal earning on the individual, as well as shedding light on the impact of virtuous practices on promoting institutional performance.
As for the targeted audience, Al Mahrouqi emphasised that the protection of public funds is a collective responsibility, and it is a religious, national and humane requirement in addition to the fact that it is legally binding.
Thus, each and every individual is committed to contribute to fostering the efficient management of resources and spread a culture of integrity through adopting righteous practices when executing his/her job duties and providing public service in order to achieve justice and equal opportunities.
And because SAI is keen to communicate the message of the program to all society segments, the programme will also be supported by English subtitling and sign language.
Al Mahrouqi stated that SAI has prepared its media and awareness plan based on a number of pillars, the most important of which are Islamic values, wise vision and government of His Majesty, requirements stipulated in the UNCAC, legal frameworks as well as national and humane principles.
He added that the plan aims to raise awareness in entities and society about partnership to protect public property and adopt values when carrying out public service in order to effectively manage resources and achieve the assigned objectives of different entities.
Al Mahrouqi added that the plan is focused on presenting various content within religious, national, ethical and legal frameworks through the use of different media templates including visual, audio, printed and electronic media.
The plan also includes executing seminars and lectures in collaboration with government institutions. Al Mahrouqi emphasized that SAI is keen to adopt best practices in designing and executing its plans.
The media and awareness plan was prepared as per the results of the four-quadrant analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges), adopting specific key performance indicators and evaluation mechanism.
Al Mahrouqi stressed the importance of awareness and its positive impact on individuals, perceptions and behaviors towards exercising righteous practices when dealing with public funds and executing public service.
He highlighted that SAI’s efforts in developing awareness-raising activities through content and its presentation continue along with the efforts to professionally implement the mandate and assigned objectives as per the regulatory laws.
The aim is to boost the march of development instituted by the late His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said, may Allah the Almighty rest his soul in peace, and wisely lead by His Majesty Sultan Haitham bin Tariq.
