Oman Center for Corporate Governance and Sustainability Organized a workshop for the Board of Directors

10 October 2017

Oman Center for Corporate Governance and Sustainability
Organized a workshop for the Board of Directors and executive management of the Voltamp Energy Company on the new Code of corporate governance

Proceeding from the assigned role to Oman Center for Corporate Governance and Sustainability based on spreading the culture of governance and encourage the private sector institutions towards applying best practices of governance principles, the Center organized a workshop held in Grand Hormuz Hotel on the new Code of Corporate Governance , with the participation of Chairman and members of the Board of Directors and the executive management of the company VOLTAMP Energy.
Qais bin Mohammed bin Moosa Al Yousuf , Chairman of the Board of Directors expressed about the importance of this programme; ‘the Board of Directors and management of the executive are aware of the importance of the development of administrative work and the need to cope with the developments in administrative science, of which corporate governance comes in the forefront, and it is considered to be one of the mechanisms adopted for the development of institutional structure of commercial entities. Hence, the board of Directors acknowledge the need to understand the reality of corporate governance practices by organizing this workshop, which contributes to determine the strengths and strengthen weaknesses.
Qais Al - Yousef added that the concern of Oman Center for Corporate Governance and Sustainability organizing such workshops and programs comes as a confirm on the attention given by the Sultanate to corporate governance to achieve competition and encourage companies towards applying best practices and applications of good governance to meet the challenges and developments that enhance the ability of companies to withstand competition, particularly in these difficult vague conditions experienced by the global economy, as the dissemination of the culture of governance in public shareholding companies and applied properly is a necessary tool to stimulate investment and the development of the business environment in the Sultanate .
The program included and emphasize on the importance of companies and their status and principles for controlling economic institutions’ affairs according to good governance practices that ensure its safe conduct activities and achieve the best levels of performance. The agenda of the program introduced the participants to know the historical roots to establish the concept of governance and how it has become a necessity sought by the company in the conduct of administrative and financial affairs with a review of the experiences of international countries in activating the foundations and principles of corporate governance and their effects in improving their performance and ability to meet the challenges, crises and market volatility.
The workshop program included a definition of the main four bases of corporate governance which are; accountability, transparency, justice and responsibility, under which the six principles of governance come; which are, the general framework , shareholders rights, and equal treatment of shareholders, role of stakeholders, disclosure and transparency, responsibility of the borad, and mechanisms of the Board of Directors, and how governance practices reflect on the operational performance, improve productivity and enhance the efficiency of external capital level of confidence. With regard to the development of the members of the Board of Directors skills, the program included topics related to the nature of the work of the Board and the powers entrusted to it, and the importance of separating the executive management of the Baord and the nature of the structural composition of the Board and the quality of its committees and how they can be members of the Board and its committees shall exercise their powers while avoiding conflicts of interest the program dealt with .
It also reviewed how the formation an effective Board of Directors in a way that contribute to enhance performance and increase efficiency through the appropriate combination of members with their skills and abilities commensurate with the powers entrusted to them. The program also stressed the importance of independent member and how to choose them as the existence of independent members can provide more guarantees for market participants to secure their interests. It has been also identified the importance of the Board 's committees and the definition of the Standing Committees and functional commissions and the considerations that must be introduced when the formation of committees. The program also emphasized the role of the Secretary of the Board of Directors and the method of choosing so .
On the other hand , it devotes a large time of the program to talk about the role of the Board of Directors in developing a strategy and performance monitoring through which the Board can invest the available resources to achieve the company's goals and overtake expected challenges. And also it discussed how to achieve interaction between the Board of Directors and the executive management of the company, and how the governance can contribute to risk management as to talk about many topics related to the role of the Board in the disclosure of information, transparency and the development of systems and mechanisms so as to achieve greater clarity and enhance the level of customer confidence.