The Ministry of Finance has issued guidelines in preparation for the year-end closing of the state account for fiscal 2021. A circular issued in this regard on Tuesday cited the provisions of a number of laws and regulations issued by Royal Decree and Ministerial Decisions. The final close of the account for Fiscal 2021 is set for December 31, 2021, it noted.
“The Ministry calls on all ministries, government units, public bodies and institutions, sports federations and others to follow the prescribed procedures while complying with the deadlines when submitting their final accounts for fiscal year 2021 to the ministry,” it said.
The circular sets a deadline of Thursday, December 30, 2021, for the submission of a statement of accounts pertaining to, among other things, funds retained in government safes or bank accounts. Additionally, a statement detailing any revenues earned for fiscal 2021 that were not received by ministries or government units, should be provided no later than Sunday, January 30, 2022.
With regard to permanent and temporary advances, the circular explained that ministries and public departments are required to disclose expenses from the permanent advances approved by head of the government unit or authorized to pay the amounts disbursed from the permanent advance no later than Thursday, January 13, 2022. This disclosure shall also include advances approved during December 2021. All such statements must be accompanied by a certificate from the bank showing the cash balance as on December 31, 2021. All temporary advances must be fully adjusted by December 31, 2021.
Heads of government units or their representative should, by January 13, 2022, submit to the Ministry of Finance a statement detailing the amounts disbursed from outstanding accounts during fiscal year 2021, account numbers and claims, along with supporting documents.
Third parties providing services to the government are required to submit a declaration stating that there are no outstanding amounts owed by them to the government as on December 31, 2021
Each ministry or government unit is responsible for taking all legally necessary measures to collect any amounts and debts due to it (including the fees for issuing licenses and work cards to non-Omanis due in line with the provisions of the current and previous Labour Laws and other decisions.
With regard to government real estate, the circular said that government units must conduct an inventory before the end of fiscal year 2021 of all properties allocated to the government unit in accordance with the stipulated procedures. A declaration to this effect shall be provided to the Ministry of Finance by January 30, 2022.
With regard to State Owned Enterprises (SoEs), the circular noted that monthly statements for December 2021 should be submitted no later than January 20, 2022. Failure to make timely submission will have an impact on the 2022 budgeting.
Omani diplomatic missions abroad must submit monthly statements for December 2021 for each individual mission after all their data are entered into the computer system by January 20, 2022.
It also warned that violations will be deemed as “financial irregularities”, particularly when accounting of revenue for fiscal 2021 is not communicated in a timely manner to the Ministry of Finance.
Also construed as irregularities are failures to submit a declaration of the annual inventory of government warehouse assets, the value of store assets, and failure to provide a declaration of the annual inventory of the assets of government libraries and the value of library assets.
The circular noted that the following entities are obliged to submit their accounts and financial statements for fiscal year 2021 to the Ministry of Finance and the State Financial and Administrative Audit authority by Sunday, January 16, 2022, as soon as they are audited:
1) Sports federations (Cultural Club and Oman Olympic Committee)
2) Royal Omani Amateur Radio Society
3) Public institutions to submit their accounts in the style of commercial accounts
(With inputs from ONA)
