English abstract
The importance of administrative and judicial oversight of endowments is evident in preserving them from loss and extinction. It also contributes to enhancing integrity and transparency in their management. It is considered one of the necessities of work of the preventive system to guarantee its sustainability and to make the best possible use of it. This importance entails the necessity of carefully analyzing legislation and administrative and judicial mechanisms in place to make this oversight effective, in line with the state’s orientations in this field, in addition to assessing the effectiveness of current oversight tools and the challenges they face.
In this study, the researcher adopted the analytic and inductive approach, by analyzing the provisions of the Endowments Law, its executive regulations, and other relevant legislations, such as the Omani Civil Transactions Law, which is related to the management and oversight of endowments by the relevant administrative authorities and the judiciary, and extrapolating these provisions, and compare them with procedures of these authorities. In the first chapter, the study dealt with explaining the concept of endowments and their importance to the Omani community, and clarifying the role of these endowments in supporting charitable works and sustained development. It also tackled the most important legislations related to endowments, and the role of government agencies in managing and controlling the endowments. As for the second chapter of the study, it clarifies the concept of judicial oversight of endowments, and theoretical models related to their oversight, in addition to explaining the nature of the judicial authority and its powers in monitoring endowments, and finally analyzing the role of judicial oversight in the conduct and management of endowments.
The researcher has concluded to several results, the most important of which are: The endowments are considered to be part of the Omani society and its culture, and that administrative and judicial control over them is considered the primary factor for their sustainability and productivity. He also concluded that the endowment sector governance is considered one of the best administrative models because it is based on foundations that raise the quality of endowment management, which are : disclosure, transparency and integrity, and finally: Judicial control over endowments is subsequent, that is, it is only achieved based on a request from stakeholders, and without this request, it is not possible for the judiciary to exercise control over endowments except in the circumstances stipulated in the Civil Transactions Law with regard to taking permission from the courts before carrying out some administrative procedures.
Disputes related to the endowments can be considered by the administrative departments of the courts in light of the abolition of the Administrative Court and its replacement by the administrative departments of ordinary courts, based on the principles of the Supreme Court in the Sultanate of Oman, which decided that the distribution of lawsuits among courts departments is a regulatory procedure done by the court and not a legal procedure.
The study was concluded by offering a set of recommendations, the most important of which are: amending a number of legal provisions regarding proving the endowment and registering it with the official government authorities, as well as the competent court that will hear endowment disputes, and preparing a comprehensive governance guide for the endowment system, including the existing endowment institutions, while highlighting the aspect of administrative oversight and the role and relationship of administrative authorities with the endowments.
