Mohammad bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan, Minister of Finance and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Government Expenditure & Projects Efficiency Authority (EXPRO), launched two national guides which are, the National Guide to Project Management and the National Guide to Asset and Facilities Management. This was in a ceremony organized by Government Expenditure & Projects Efficiency Authority on Sunday, June 6th, 2022. As a part of the efforts of government agencies that seek to unify and develop methodologies aimed at controlling and governance affiliated infrastructure projects. The authority has worked to implement the transformation plan for asset and facilities management, as well as the project management, and the development of sustainable institutional solutions to prepare and launch these two guides to form the approved national reference within the national projects platform that operates according to an integrated methodology for managing projects and facilities. During the launching ceremony of the two national guides, His Excellency delivered a speech in which he stressed that these two guides would be tributaries to the efforts of the government agencies and their endeavors towards excellence at an institutional level. As it raises the efficiency of spending in capital and operational projects since it is a high-quality infrastructure upon which the foundations of our prosperous economy and the well-being of citizens and residents rest. Al-Jadaan added, "these accelerated steps in the field of achieving the quality and sustainability of project management and public utilities, are only part of a larger and broader process entitled to achieve the efficiency of spending and the quality of government projects, in order to ensure the greatest impact against government spending on capital and operational projects," noting that "we look forward to today, after launching this integrated methodology, through our partners in all government agencies, to activate these two guides into continuous practices that all parties and active partners in the construction and operation of infrastructure in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are committed to, to speed up the access and sustainability of services to citizens and residents; Bearing in mind the supreme goal, which is the sustainability of the Kingdom's economy and serving its people." For his part, the CEO of the Government Expenditure & Projects Efficiency Authority (EXPRO), Eng. Abdul Razzaq bin Subhi Al-Aujan, said: "these two guides have been prepared in accordance with the best local and international standards and practices. They were under the supervision and follow-up of distinguished national competencies and expertise, which contributes to improving and raising spending efficiency in operating expenses and consolidating the quality of the services provided. Work has been done to build the scientific content of the two guides based on rich national and global experiences for managing infrastructure projects in all its stages, covering the entire life cycle of the project starting from the planning and construction stage, through the stages of contracting and purchasing, and from operating and maintaining with initiatives to raise spending efficiency in partnership with government agencies." Al-Aujan added: "within this approach based on supporting projects, asset and facilities in partnership with government agencies, some government agencies have been able to achieve success in the speedy implementation of government projects by 40%, which is equivalent to (6,085) days, and have also succeeded in achieving a financial impact of (120) billion riyals during the year 2021, which are the amounts that were redirected into priority and development projects to achieve the goals of Vision 2030. While this resulted in the initiative to localize operation and maintenance contracts, providing more than (100) thousand job opportunities to young Saudi men and women. It has also trained more than 1,845 trainees in the same initiative, in addition to training 1,844 trainees in the field of asset and facilities in government agencies. And it supported government agencies in establishing (194) spending efficiency teams, which resulted in achieving a financial impact of (39) billion riyals. The National Guide to Project Management includes 16 volumes, each of which specializes in a specific project management function, which helps public authorities in planning, implementing, and moving from one phase to another. It starts from the project registration phase to the delivery phase and the final closing, it goes through stages of establishing, finalizing, and managing the structure, as well as the precise technical stages of planning, designing, implementation, operation, and maintenance. The National Guide for Asset and Facilities Management consists of 17 volumes, each of which is concerned with a specific function of asset and facilities management and includes the best local and global standards and practices to accomplish these functions. It also covers 6 major sectors of government assets and efficiency, as well as raising the efficiency of assets and facilities. The guide is considered the first technical reference of its kind at national, regional, and global levels in the field of providing direction and guidance to public authorities on ways to optimally utilize the resources of asset management and facilities for each entity.
