Oman Centre for Corporate Governance and Sustainability (OCGS) organized a workshop for the directors and executive management of Oman Dry Dock Company SAOC at the company offices in al Athaibah. The event was organized to provide an overall introduction to corporate governance  and sustainability.

Sayyid Hamed Sultan Al Busaidi, Director General for Support Services at the Capital Market Authority (CMA), and Acting Director of  the OCGS opened the workshop and welcomed the participants. He introduced the OCGS and  highlighted the role of corporate governance and its importance to the directors and executives of corporates. Hence,  CMA issued the Code of Corporate Governance and supervised the performance of the companies to ensure disclosure of any material information which could affect the financial position of the company. He also outlined the evolution of the Code of Corporate Governance in Oman, which started as optional in 2002 and then became obligatory, emphasizing that a new version of the code in underway and will be issued shortly.

Then, Sayyid Hamed al Busaidi engaged the participants into a discussion about corporate governance principles and keys, such as: disclosure, transparency, integrity, protection of small shareholders etc.

He added CMA and OCGS are keen to organize training programmes and workshops on corporate governance for corporate directors and executives to keep them abreast with the latest global developments in corporate governance and sustainability.

Mohammed Said Al Brashdi, Corporate Governance Specialist at the OCGS, discussed the adverse results of  executive greed and incompliance with corporate governance principles, citing the experience of Enron. He then went on to elaborate on components of governance including checks and balances. Ahmed Ali Al Makaini, Expert at the OCGS, highlighted certain key questions and milestones that would assist ODC to chart its corporate governance system and manual.

Then, Ahmed Al Makaini concluded the workshop with presenting and discussing one documented case study. He highlighted the perils arising from non-compliance with essential governance principles emphasizing that no company is immuned from such misconducts and the wide ranging repercussions.