MUSCAT: The Ministry of Finance, on Monday, organised a workshop to discuss the plan for preparing the quarterly report’s final draft of the internal audit departments in government agencies.

The ‘plan to strengthen the role of internal audit units in governmental entities’ which the Ministry of Finance is working to implement, is a translation of the priorities of ‘Oman 2040’ Vision to achieve the system of legislation, judiciary and oversight.

The plan aims to build a comprehensive control system that protects national capabilities and achieves control principles, by activating and developing the work of internal audit units, empowering and training them, and identifying the challenges they face to ensure their independence to perform their oversight tasks.

The project consists of three main pillars represented in preparing a plan to qualify the human cadres in the internal audit units, in cooperation with the State’s Financial and Administrative Control Authority, and preparing a unified form for quarterly reports, which has been completed and is being reviewed. With the participation of the internal audit units, and studying the legal requirements to enhance the independence of the internal audit units, in light of the amendments that the Ministry of Finance is working on to update the financial law and its executive regulations.

During the seminar, the Ministry of Finance reviewed the draft of the quarterly report, which was drafted according to the best practices followed in a number of government units to ensure the implementation of the budget and the monitoring of financial violations.

The workshop was attended by His Excellency Abdullah bin Salem Al Harthy, Undersecretary of Finance, with the participation of a number of representatives of government agencies.