UAE Prime Minister

Mohammed issues law boosting financial oversight

In his capacity as the Ruler of Dubai, UAE Vice President and Prime His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum issued a law ordering government-linked companies to transfer surplus revenues to the emirate's treasury and requires better control of public spending and transparency.

The law requires government departments which enjoy fiscal independence as well as government-related companies to transfer surplus revenues to the public treasury as public revenues. The law also aims to regulate government departments' public spending and control government revenues, as well as to provide an accurate database for revenues and expenditures.

The law states that government entities are required to abide by a number of controls, criteria, and procedures that seek to rein in public spending and control government income and provide an accurate database about their income and spending.

Government entities have to transfer their income to the government's public treasury account, and they are prohibited from retaining any part of their income or spending it on their activities or investments or utilizing it, according to the new legislation.

The new law, No. 35 of 2009, replacing law No. 18 of 2006, requires all government entities to provide the government with their annual budget, which must be approved by the Supreme Fiscal Committee.

The law also forces financially-independent government companies to transfer their surpluses to the public treasury.

The new law allows the companies re-invest profits and revenue surplus before transferring them to the public treasury, with the approval of the Supreme Fiscal Committee, in consultation with Investment Corporation of Dubai, which oversees the emirate's investment portfolio.