MUSCAT, OCT 20
Oman’s State Financial and Administrative Audit Authority has found wide inconsistencies in how oil and gas companies apply the In-Country Value (ICV) programme, alongside unpaid training levies and weaknesses in fuel-subsidy verification systems.
The review of ICV implementation under the Ministry of Energy and Minerals showed minimum contract thresholds varied sharply between operators — from $1 million to $10 million — limiting the use of smaller contracts to support local suppliers.
A PDO contractor was exempted from penalties estimated between RO 6 million and RO 11.6 million after failing to allocate 10% of contract scope to SMEs, contrary to programme aims to deepen domestic value-addition.
Auditors also reported 334 contracts missed Omanisation targets in 2018–2021, breaching the ministry’s 2013 strategy; the baseline cited included 7,530 Omani workers.
On workforce development funding, companies failed to pay about RO 4.2 million in Training Fund levies and withheld around RO 1.5 million that should have been transferred to the government.
The audit further flagged ineligible fuel-subsidy disbursements between 2021 and Q3 2023, citing the absence of a robust eligibility-verification mechanism and no electronic linkage with the National Records Centre to auto-check beneficiaries.
As corrective steps in response, the Ministry pledged to update the ICV strategy to standardise thresholds and committed to followup up with companies that missed ICV/Omanisation targets. The National Subsidy System Committee, for its part, promised to tighten controls and link electronically with the records authority.
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