Muscat – Royal Decree No 50/2023, which promulgates the bylaw of Social Protection Fund, defines the goals, areas of specialty and the administrative structure of the fund.

The decree acts as a legal reference for implementing the provisions of the Social Protection Law.

As per the Royal Decree, all assets and liabilities of the Public Authority for Social Insurance, Civil Service Employees Pension Fund, Ministry of Defence’s Pension Fund, Royal Oman Police’s Pension Fund, Royal Guard of Oman’s Pension Fund, Pension Fund of Sultan’s Special Force, Pension Fund of the Internal Security Service, Pension Fund of the Royal Office and the Pension Fund of the Diwan of Royal Court are transferred to the Social Protection Fund. Liabilities and assets from the Pension Programme of Petroleum Development Oman (PDO) and the Pension Programme of Central Bank of Oman (CBO) are also transferred to the Social Protection Fund.

As such, 11 existing pension systems, along with their assets and liabilities, will be merged into one entity. The decree aims at unifying retirement and social insurance systems from all sectors. It introduces a more efficient central apparatus capable of providing public services and developing assets.

The Social Protection Fund has a number of goals: It will implement the government’s vision, policy and programmes on social protection, provide an adequate and fair social coverage for various segments of society, establish an integrated and sustainable system for social protection, manage the fund’s resources and invest its money to raise the value. It also aims to align the current and future obligations to the interest of beneficiaries, creating savings tools and support programmes to enhance social protection, while following up and assessing the performance of all monetary and non-monetary social protection programmes.

The fund’s administrative system will help devise social protection strategies, policies and programmes and enhance these in terms of incentives serving the covered groups, evaluate the effectiveness of the programmes and invest the beneficiaries’ funds in a manner that achieves the expected return.

The fund also regularises the services and policies of client care, and coordinates with the authorities concerned to improve and harmonise these with the rest of the relevant initiatives.

The fund will be managed and organised by a board of directors comprising the membership of representatives from the State’s Administrative Apparatus (government departments), Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry, General Federation of Oman Workers and independent members, in accordance with the best practices of governance and the requirements of the ‘tripartite representation’ of social insurance and protection systems.

Royal Decree No 50/2023 provides for the cancellation of all pension funds and the Public Authority for Social Insurance, as well as retirement/pension programmes – after transferring the ownership of their assets to the Social Protection Fund.

Royal Decree No 51/2023 acts in a similar way for military and security services pension funds, thus serving retirees of military units in an adequate manner. 

ONA

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