The worker-transfer rule Oman should measure

A service can outlast the company contracted to deliver it. The building still needs maintenance, the computer system still needs support and the vehicles still need servicing. But when the contractor changes, what happens to the Omanis who have been doing that work?
Oman has already addressed that question in part through its procurement rules. What deserves greater attention is whether the outcome is measured, and whether the public can see what those protections achieve.
The issue is timely. At its second meeting of 2026 on October 18, the Executive Committee for Local Content reviewed plans to extend the Local Content Certificate to government entities covered by the Tenders Law in 2027. It also discussed work towards introducing the Imdad programme into government contracts, following its use in the energy sector. Neither initiative is the worker-transfer rule. But the wider attention to local-content performance makes employment continuity a reasonable measure to ask for.
Article 24 of the Regulation Governing Consolidated Procurement, issued through Decision No. 142/2023 by the then Secretariat General of the Tender Board, requires the relevant government entity to include provisions in tender documents obliging the successful bidder to take on Omani workers employed under the existing contract within the new tender's scope of work. Their wages and financial benefits must not be lower than before the transfer.
The provision has a defined scope. The regulation covers specified purchasing categories, including vehicles, facilities management and information technology; it does not cover every government contract, still less every private contract. Article 6 also requires tender requests to be submitted well ahead of existing contracts' expiry. That should create room to deal with employees' position before a new contractor takes over.
There is a documented reason for asking what happens at the end of contracts. In the community brief on its 2022 annual audit, published on October 2, 2023, the State Audit Institution recorded cases of citizens losing jobs after training and recruitment because contracts expired, projects were completed or, in the Institution's description, they were dismissed arbitrarily. The brief did not state how many workers were affected by that finding. It also reported transfer arrangements introduced by the Ministry of Labour for certain oil, gas and construction contracts.
Those findings predate the consolidated procurement regulation and do not establish breaches of Article 24. They do show why continuity deserves to be considered as a policy outcome, rather than left to individual contract handovers. The 2023 Labour Law points in a similar direction: Article 22 requires establishments employing at least 25 workers to develop practical strategies for retaining Omani staff, among other measures. That is a separate obligation, not a substitute for the procurement provision.
When a new contract is awarded, an employment total tells us less than it appears to. Some Omanis on the incoming supplier's payroll may already have been doing the same work for the outgoing contractor. Keeping them employed is valuable, but it should be counted as retention, not confused with an additional job created.
For contracts subject to Article 24, I would like to see a small set of public indicators. How many Omanis were working under the outgoing contract? How many moved directly to the successful bidder? How many found other employment without a break, and how many experienced a period without work? Of those transferred, how many remained employed after six and twelve months, and what happened to their wages and financial benefits?
None of this requires publishing workers' names or commercially sensitive tender details. Contracting entities could record the figures at handover, with the Projects, Tenders and Local Content Authority setting a common reporting method. The Ministry of Labour could help verify outcomes where the law allows data to be shared. Testing the approach in one purchasing category first would show whether the benefits justify the administrative effort.
Oman is not starting from nothing. Decision No. 174/2023 requires contracting entities to report quarterly on contractual local-content plan compliance, including corrective actions and sanctions. On June 27, 2026, the authority described a broader performance framework for government projects and procurement, covering planning, implementation and local-content outcomes. It is not established from the published material I reviewed whether these systems separately report transfers of workers between contractors. That is precisely the sort of information worth explaining or publishing.
There is, of course, a cost question. A new supplier may bring equipment that requires fewer employees, reorganise duties or offer a different way of delivering the service. Preserving an unchanged payroll regardless of the work required would not necessarily serve the taxpayer, the worker or a smaller firm seeking to compete. Yet Article 24 does not expressly set out a general exemption simply because a bidder proposes a more efficient operating model. Where the scope genuinely changes, the authority should clarify the rule's application before the award rather than leave contractors and employees to guess.
And where the work ends altogether, a transfer obligation cannot create a service that no longer exists. Early assistance in finding another suitable position matters more in that case than an unrealistic promise. The point is to protect continuity where work remains, while recognising changes that can be justified lawfully and economically.
A tender clause records an obligation. An uninterrupted job, with pay and benefits maintained, shows what it achieved. Oman should be able to assess both that result and the cost of obtaining it.
The number worth watching is not only how many Omanis a new contract employs, but how many experienced workers did not have to begin again when the contract changed hands.