MOE holds 1st forum for Financial Affairs

The Ministry of Education (MOE), represented by the Directorate-general of Administrative and Financial Affairs, organised the first forum for financial affairs departments which kicked-of start on Monday morning under the patronage of H E Majid bin Said al Bahri, Undersecretary for Administrative and Financial Affairs at the Ministry of Education.

The opening of the forum was held in the presence of the directors of all educational directorates in the ministry’s General Diwan, and with the participation of 60 participants, representing the educational directorates in the governorates, in addition to specialists from the DirectorateGeneral of Financial Affairs. The forum took place at the JW Marriott Hotel Muscat.

The opening programme for the first day of the forum included the opening speech, delivered by Rahma al Mahrouqi, Assistant Director-general of the Financial Affairs for Budget, Revenues and Expenditures.

She explained that the first forum for ‘financial affairs departments’ aims to shed light on the financial items that have been approved in the budget of the Ministry of Education for the year 2024, and clarify the determinants of its implementation, and the powers related to the principle of decentralisation in the annual budget powers of the educational directorates.

She also explained that the forum includes several discussion and introductory sessions, the topics of which were proposed by H E Majid al Bahri, and by the financial affairs departments in the educational directorates in the governorates.

The forum also aims to answer all the questions that are on the minds of all those working in the financial field, and to develop plans, programmes, and activities, according to the available financial terms, through dialogue sessions that take place after each paper presented.

The first day of the forum included holding four discussion sessions that included sections of the Budget Department, starting with the current and capital budget section, followed by the transportation budget session, then the development budget session, and finally the jobs budget session.

The second day of the forum opened with an introductory session from the Information Technology Project Management Office on the Procedures Engineering Management Project at the Ministry of Education, followed by a discussion session from the Revenues Department, then Energy Resources Expenditures, then the Treasury Department, followed by introductory sessions on the financial system ‘Finance’ and the Assets Department. On its third day, the forum will come out with results and recommendations that achieve its desired goals.

Through this three-days forum, the Directorate aims to improve aspects of work between the departments of the Directorate-general of Financial Affairs and the Financial Affairs departments, discuss the reality of the existing challenges and ways to overcome them, the financial powers of the sub-budget, and discuss the draft government financial system ‘Finance’.

In addition, the forum aims at addressing the challenges of financial procedures in educational directorates, and discussing everything related to the ministry’s budget, through discussion and dialogue sessions.