Governance for federal entities

A strong governance culture is regarded as one of the key elements to maintaining and growing a sustainable economy.

For this reason, governance increasingly attracts the attention of the United Arab Emirates’ (UAE) Government, regulators, and the general public.

The Cabinet’s highly anticipated new Decision no. (2/9w) of the year 2020 on the Governance System for Federal Government Boards, is one example of the UAE’s governance reforms. These changes focus on the following governance practices:

1. Board organizational guidelines.
2. Roles of the board secretary.
3. Board committees
4. Conditions for a board member to have membership in other federal entity boards
5. Code of ethics and conflict of interest management
6. Board self-evaluation
7. Whistleblowing

The amendments mentioned above are geared toward establishing minimum acceptable standards for federal government boards’ governance practices and ensuring overall transparency, financial confidence and stability.

The Cabinet’s Decision applies to all federal entities and their subsidiaries.

Throughout the following pages we highlight:

• Key requirements of the new governance systems for federal entities in the UAE.
• Challenges which federal entities may face when implementing the new governance systems’ requirements.
• Our methodologies and approaches to support federal entities working to comply with the new Cabinet Decision, as well as entities seeking to align with and benchmark themselves against international leading practices.