RIYADH — The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) has issued a decision on Monday approving the localization of operation and maintenance contracts to be an electronic service within the Qiwa platform. The ministerial decision was issued by the Minister of Human Resources and Social Development Eng. Ahmed Al-Rajhi, who directed the approval of the service of documenting the contracts of the localization initiative of operation and maintenance in public entities to become an e-service. The service aims to follow up localizing the contracts of operation and maintenance in public entities and to check on the establishments' compliance with the targeted localization rates in those contracts. The electronic service will also support the Ministry's efforts which aim to increase the participation opportunities for Saudi men and women in the labor market. The decision will be applied over all the establishments contracting with the government agencies, and the establishments in which the state contributes a percentage of at least 51%. This will include several contracts, which are: operation, maintenance, road operation and maintenance, city cleaning, catering, in addition to the information technology operation and maintenance contracts. The decision obligates the establishments who have operation and maintenance contracts with the public entities to submit the contracts' data on the electronic platform (Qiwa), through the service of localization of operation and maintenance contracts. MHRSD also clarified that the decision will be applied within 3 phases according to the size of the establishments. The first phase has been set for giant establishments starting from Sept. 1, 2023, while the second phase has been set for large establishments starting from June 1; 2024. The third phase has been set for all the other establishments starting from Dec. 1, 2024. It is noteworthy that the Qiwa platform is a main gate for the work sector, as it aims to organize and follow up on all deals between different parties such as employees, government and private establishments, in an automated and immediate way without the need to use the paper transactions. It also accompanies the establishment's journey from its founding, development until its expansion, in addition to the employee's journey from their first job until retirement.
