INSEAD INNOVATION & POLICY INITIATIVE

CASE STUDY

Reforming Construction:

Permit Approval in Muscat

1

The Significance of a Successfully Regulated Building Sector

“The enforcement of construction permits continues to be complex the world over,

creating opportunities for widespread discretion and corruption and ultimately

leading to high numbers of informal buildings. In most developing countries, the

percentage of buildings that do not go through any form of controls at the design,

construction, or post-construction stages is generally estimated to be between 60

and 80 percent.”

So begins a 2013 report from the World Bank Group, examining good practice in construction

regulations and enforcement.1 As the report points out, a successfully regulated building

sector not only bolsters a countries ability to attract investment but also introduces

transparency and creates a level playing field for small businesses with limited connections.

In Algeria, surveys of private-sector firms show that 57 percent consider implementation of

regulations to be always skewed in favor of the interests of elite, incumbent firms. This rate is

60 percent in Morocco and 66 percent in Lebanon. In India, 67% of applicants expect to pay

gift money for a permit and in Cambodia, 96.1 percent expect to do the same.

Regulation also protects the general citizenry and their environment, as a gate-keeper

Building Permit directorates can ensure dangerous manufacturing processes are kept from

residential areas, environmental goals are considered, heritage sites are secured and the

overall infrastructure policy implemented in practice.

It also prevents a number of negative outcomes like the notion of ”dead capital”2 a term

Hernando de Soto defined as assets that cannot legally be used because they exist as a result

of implicit, rather than legal infrastructures. He estimated that the existing stock of informal

construction across the largest developing cities in the world is about $6.7 trillion. These dead

assets cannot be used to raise capital and entrepreneurial opportunities in the countries are

radically diminished.

Then there is the very real cost of human lives when strict building codes are either not in

place or are ignored such as in the case of the 7.0 Haiti earthquake which killed 100,000

people and an estimated 250, 000 residential and 30,000 business buildings collapsed. It was

calculated that 90 percent of this building stock was informal. In happy contrast, province

authorities in Ontario, Canada, in the years following its 2001 reforms, recorded a 40 percent

reduction in accidents within the building industry and a decline of 15 percent in fires.

International Reform Policy experiences

As Building Permit systems have evolved across the world, countries grapple with one or

some of these issues (see Chart below) or put another way the ambiguity presents in one of

these categories so forcefully that it culminates in conflict.

The tragedy in Haiti for example lay in its lack of building codes. Without these common

references, ambiguity arose between designers, builders and regulators.

1 Good Practices for Construction Regulation and Enforcement Reform: Guidelines for Reformers: World Bank

Group, 2013 2The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else (New York:Basic

2

In the rebuilding process, building types were categorized and assigned appropriate standards

for public health, safety, fire protection, structural efficiency and environmental integrity.

This process of categorization was also at the heart of reforms in Canada and Macedonia.

Chart 1: Eight critical elements contribute to efficient and enforced building

regulations. Source: World Bank

Independent Third Party Review

The third party refers to the independent expert who undertakes review and inspection tasks –

when municipalities have insufficient capacity to cover the full volume themselves. A

developing trend has grown to outsource to private-sector firms who are certified as suitable.

In the United Kingdom their emphasis for reform focused on the use of approved private-

inspection bodies as an alternative choice to the public authorities. This competitive system

created a service mindset and helped to streamline compliance procedure. Norway took the

Building codes

Building & Occupancy

Permits: Processes and Institutions

Independent Third Party Review

Sound and Transparent Urban

Planning Requirements

Professional Standards &

Oversight Mechanisms

Produce Certification

Systems

Liability & Insurance Systems

Conflict Resolution Mechanisms

3

concept to extreme with a controversial system to do away with Third Party Review

altogether. Instead they invited certified consultants and builders to self-regulate. The radical

approach was found overall to have negative effects on safety.

Sound and Transparent Urban Planning Requirements

In reforming countries many focused on providing certified professionals with a regional

master plan and the municipal zoning plans. Developers were given access to information

including maps, the coefficient of land use plus utility networks and regulations. Legal

reforms were instituted to enable applicants „right to build‟ if the proposed site had been

cleared for development. France and the United Kingdom implemented these reforms

although most of their European neighbours assigned the task to their building authorities.

Professional Standards and Oversight Mechanisms.

Plainly it is vital to imbue the construction sector with capable professionals both in design

and building phases. Again, in Europe mostly, remit and responsibility has been shifting

towards private practitioners and away from local building authorities. In Austria private

experts can be commissioned by the municipality to carry out checks and inspections. The

municipality issue the permits based on the experts report. In the UK, the inspector has the

right to issue the permit directly. To maintain requisite standards, both countries designed

intensive licensing systems to certify outsourced experts.

Product Certification Systems

Most European countries, Japan, New Zealand and Australia have functioning Product

Certification Systems. Products are mostly linked to accredited standards agencies that

develop the standards and protocols. These structures can actively support innovation in

design or new materials that may represent cost and performance benefits compared to

previous practices or products.

Liability and Insurance Systems

An effective liability system ensures accountability. While insurance can be a restitution

mechanism for aggrieved parties, it can also serve as a lubricant to building permit approval

as it removes legal uncertainty for officials who can then afford to make quicker decisions.

Reformers who have revamped this aspect of the permit process include middle-income

countries like the Czech Republic, Kazakhstan and Columbia. The liability ratios are

assigned in different proportions in different systems, but the one considered most feasible for

policy makers is that of Proportional liability. This arrangement sees parties paying in

proportion to their share of fault and all key players have adequate insurance coverage.

The Czech Republic created a new profession in 2007 – that of private authorized inspectors –

able to issue construction permits. In case of damage, the authorized inspector is materially

responsible for his work and carries legal liability for the building, along with the builder –

the proportion being determined by an audit of the documentation.

4

Conflict Resolution Mechanisms

Profession conflicts can arise via disparate interpretation of technical requirements,

sufficiency of building code design compliance and licensing of building professionals. A

robust system in best-practice reformer countries creates a level playing field for all

developers. The appeal system has to demonstrate competence in technical, procedural

safeguards and transparency – and some countries have set up separate regulating bodies,

which can be an expensive exercise. However, in countries like Cote d‟Ivoire, Mali and

Senegal where in the absence of such a body, disputes have to go to the mainstream judicial

system not technically prepared to make meaningful decisions on the sector. Under these

conditions there is a reluctance to adhere to the system at all. The will to avoid possible

delays because of the dearth of professional bodies is so deeply entrenched in Mali that

eighty-five percent of the building stock is informal.

Processes and Institutions: Effective Regulations & use of ICT

A huge emergent trend in best practice countries is to employ ICT Tools. Building code

requirements globally are becoming increasingly complex. There are new policy measures to

minimize environmental impact and fast evolving technical innovation in methodology and

materials. At the same time, population growth in most developing countries is adding extra

demand for building permits and from a health and safety point of view, these countries are

striving to achieve a higher percentage of formalization. A recent example of the adoption a

digital building permit system was Kenya who experienced a 300 percent increase in

applications in 2010. By introducing a digital system they achieved a 37% reduction in man-

hours required to issue their permits.

Reform Watch at the World Bank

Each year, the World Bank assimilates information on all reforms in the construction sectors

by country and uses the data as one of the determining factors as to how business friendly

each country is. The introductory remarks in the Doing Business report 2013:

“For policy makers trying to improve their economy„s regulatory environment for

business, a good place to start is to find out how it compares with the regulatory

environment in other economies. Doing Business provides an aggregate ranking

on the ease of doing business based on indicator sets that measure and

benchmark regulations applying to domestic small to medium-size businesses

through their life cycle. Economies are ranked from 1 to 185 by the ease of doing

business index. For each economy the index is calculated as the ranking on the

simple average of its percentile rankings on each of the 10 topics included in the

index in Doing Business 2013: starting a business, dealing with construction

permits, getting electricity, registering property, getting credit, protecting

investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and resolving

insolvency.”

Singapore topped the rankings in 2013. Oman, a rapidly growing country with GDP at USD

71.8 billion and a population of 2.6 million (2011 World Bank) compared with Singapore‟s

USD 239.7 billion and population of 5.184 million was ranked 47th,

where once it had been at

154. See exhibit 1.

5

Focused on 2020 – Oman and a growing economy

Like other members of the GCC countries, the Sultanate of Oman was very much aware of the

need to diversify away from total reliance on their oil reserves and in 1995 the government

issued a master plan, to be implemented in five-year increments. The Seventh Five-Year Plan

– to span 2006 to 2010 named the following three priorities directly mandating the overhaul

of the construction industry.

Continuance of the efforts exerted in the field of upgrading and enhancing the

efficiency of the state‟s administrative apparatus and control of its performance.

Upgrading the information Technology (IT) sector through implementing the National

Strategy for Oman Digital Society with special emphasis on establishing a sound basis

for the E-Government.

It was towards the end of this five year plan that His Excellency Sultan bin Hamdoon Al

Harthy was appointed as Chairman of the Muscat Municipality in 2009.

His Excellency Sultan bin Hamdoon Al Harthy decided to introduce himself to the Building

Permit section by finding out the status of his own application for a private residence he

hoped to build. It had been some time since he had heard word from his consultant.

He entered the building and was astonished – he could barely find space to place his feet –

offices and corridors were stacked high with files and papers. He approached an architectural

engineer and asked “How do you find anything in here?”. The paper piles were so high that it

was reported later that one of the engineers in the room failed to recognize H.E., obscured as

he was by the walls of paper. Adding to the general chaos, queues of consultant fixers ranged

around the architects and structural engineers, trying to get their companies plans seen and

validated.

Prior to his arrival, H.E. Al Harthy had heard that the process of getting a building permit was

an arduous one that could take up to 174 days with numerous reports that plans and

applications were sometimes lost altogether. Clearly, the stories of a chaotic Building Permit

process were no exaggeration and required swift action.

He might have the remit to implement a digital system, but in the context of Muscat, digital

conversion would form only part of the full picture. Omani society is extremely traditional. In

practice this means that a civil servants door can never truly be „closed‟. The citizen applicant

typically had a legitimate social relationship with the municipality official whether through

family or social connections. They would expect to engage directly with that official during

the process. It was of vital importance that the social construct was respected in the changes to

come.

A digital system in the Muscat Context

These cultural parameters were important. However it was apparent that the current customer

facing interactions were a main contributing factor in causing delays and, worse, disrupting

the queue of applications meant to be in admission date order.

6

Also, the manual files were physically wheeled by trolley between the various approval

officials in their separate offices. With no trackable system it was difficult to convince

citizenry that the application approval process was based on building laws laid down by

government rather than the power of social connections with municipal officials. The process

appeared highly ambiguous and consultants and citizens alike were able to point fingers at the

municipality for the delays and subsequent cost implications whether or not it was warranted

in the case. The finger pointing was not restricted to individuals either - the press in Oman

had become increasingly vocal and was unabashed in calling the Municipality to account for

what it saw as a lengthy and inconsistent service.

Responsibilities and Remits for Stakeholders and Municipality

There clearly needed to be some distance created between the citizenry and the approval

officials. In best practice and most other countries, consultants were the sole interface

between their client and the municipality. In Muscat, however, some consultants were rather

haphazard in their applications. Despite consultant‟s awareness of regulations, their clients,

who thought they would be able to get special permissions via their municipality connections,

persuaded some consultants to include design elements that lay outside the regulations. Partly

because of this trend, consultants had also come to rely on the Municipality as a kind of back-

up service who would remind them if certain structural laws had been broken or if permission

from a service entity had not been sought.

Both of these factors created a lengthy back and forth process which wasted time and

resources for citizenry, consultants and municipality alike.

Resources

The Municipality could ill afford the additional man-hours. Prior to H.E. Al Harthy‟s

appointment in 2009, there had been an enormous influx of additional traffic applying for

building permits with a surge in economic growth due mainly to the high price of fuel. The

sultanate government reported that revenue at the end of March 2008 was RO 2,116 million, a

rise of 36.5% against RO 1,549.9 million during the corresponding period of 2007.

The government‟s new financial status meant they could support infrastructure development

projects and focus on growing sectors not dependent on oil such as Tourism. This translated

to 34.7% Construction Industry growth in 2007 and electricity and water supply also saw

record growth of 8%. Oman was also relatively well shielded from the financial crisis taking

hold across the globe and it was evident that further expansion could be expected.

This served to compound the already considerable pressure on the qualified staff engineers in

the building department section. With only six architectural and four structural engineers, the

workload was unrealistic and with the unregimented stream of citizens and consultants

flowing through their offices, it was hard to process applications in an orderly manner. It was

also difficult to follow up queries internally within the manual file system. To compound the

system frustrations, these few officials were paid less than the private sector could offer and it

was proving difficult to retain them. The competition in the market also meant some of the

officials had less experience than the Municipality would have liked.

7

As an immediate measure, H.E Al Harthy appointed Engineer Khalid Khamis Al-Hashmi as

Director of Building Permits to manage the resources in the department and devise a plan for

the future.

A Quick Win – Reducing the transactions

Both were set on implementing a digitized process but realized that with such complex

architectural components it would take some time and agreed that a short-term plan to

streamline the process was called for. First they analysed every detail of the permit

application process.

“How does the consultant bring his application to us, where does he park his car,

who meets him when he gets to the building, what does that person do for him?”

The analysis brought to light 45 processes from application submission to issue. They spent a

fruitful hour together and reduced the steps required to 26, providing an immediate reduction

in time spent by all stakeholders.

A simplified system

The next part of this procedure phase was designed by Eng. Al Hashmi to achieve some of

both main objectives - to distance the citizenry from the municipality officials and to

discipline the consultants to take full responsibility for the design and submit fully completed

applications.

A simple file was developed to house applications with specific sections for each requirement

- permissions from other government service entities such as water, sewage, electricity and

the plans and elevations. Included was the following:

A checklist that acted as an application form, prompting consultants to check all

Municipality requirements necessary for their particular request.

A site report with photos attached so that engineers could check the drawings and site

remotely.

A fees form that ensured consultants provided details of the built-up area before

submission.

An endorsement on the application from the building permit archive to confirm there

was no prior permit issued for the same plot.

If an initial building permit had previously been issued, the original permit book and

the drawings of those approved buildings and modifications.

A scanned copy of the Kuroki printed on the site plan drawing.

If the requisites were not present, the application was not accepted. If it had to be modified in

any way, the corrections would have to be returned within the week or it would be viewed as

a new submission.

8

This drastically reduced the amount of back and forth required to deal with typically

incomplete submissions. It also put the responsibility for the site and its‟ history squarely

back into the consultants hands. Placing the burden of professionalism on them echoed the

principal taking hold in Europe.

Importantly for the digital process to follow, it was made mandatory to submit drawings from

AutoCAD instead of draughtsman drawings – a measure that had been introduced in 2004.

Submissions were now handed to administrators at a public interface. Each consultant was

assigned a pigeonhole that would hold return applications or responses to questions about a

submission. Once vetted by public-facing administration staff, the application file proceeded

to the approval officials. The aim was to reduce the number of stops the files would make

within the building. Mr. Al Hashmi was convinced that the whole process could be achieved

between four contact points – first administrator, then architectural engineer, structural

engineer and finally the approval director. With the files complete before they reached these

officials, four stops became a real possibility.

Mr. Al Hashmi commandeered a meeting hall, reassigned it as a space to house architectural

and structural engineers and closed it off from the public. At the time, staff, used to their own

offices, objected fiercely, claiming that lack of privacy and communal noise would produce

sub-standard performance. However, it was soon apparent that working away from the face-

to-face pressure from applicants was more than enough compensation for these perceived

losses. Uninterrupted, they were now spending their working hours using their specific

technical expertise and skills instead of struggling through an additional tide of administrative

tasks. Eng. Al Hashmi also appointed Registrars who registered, distributed and controlled the

applications and their flow between architects, engineers, consultant offices and municipality

directors.

Architects and structural engineers placed side by side could easily consult with each other

and pass on files directly their sign-off was complete. Unlike the inter-office hand delivery

system of the past, handling queries between architectural and structural engineers became

seamless. The possibility of files going missing was reduced to almost nothing.

Staff levels were also increased - by 2010 there were 20 architects and 12 structural engineers.

Now that the permit directorate was behind closed doors, there had to be other communication

channels opened to deal with legitimate queries, clarifications on architectural or structural

decisions or interpretation of regulations. An interview request form was compiled for

submission at the public reception. The concerned architect or engineer could follow up by

phone or set up a face-to-face meeting. A dedicated email address was also put in place for

initial approvals and queries and a phone number and SMS were assigned for tracking

application status.

The consultants were now placed at a suitable distance, yet still provided with clear

opportunities to communicate effectively with the directorate.

At the same time, small steps were made in the direction of digitization. Internally a system

was put in place to register all requests and follow them through each step. Building Permits

were now printed instead of handwritten.

9

The first phase brought the procedures per permit down to 22 transactions and the number of

days to execute down to fifteen.

Digitising the applications process

There was no system at hand in Oman that could seamlessly be adopted to fully digitize the

building permit applications process. The AutoCAD architectural drawings and construction

documentation were complex and huge in size. A lot of the supporting information was

sensitive and much of it related to many other government agencies. Eng. Al Hashmi and a

number of his staff visited international municipalities that had been successful in

implementing similar systems.

The most outstanding example they researched was that of Singapore which had managed to

integrate all their service agencies and municipal functions into a single digital data system.

When a consultant began a design plan, he would have access to all the existing permissions

and conditions for the plot without having to move from his chair. From there on in, each

step of the design and permissions process was added into the central system creating a

watertight archive of the entire master plan of Singapore.

Best Practice: Singapore system from Concept to Construction

Singapore‟s integrated system was one factor that put the country on top of the World Bank‟s

annual „Doing Business‟ list from 2005/2006. The success was largely attributed to a top-

down approach. In the early 1960‟s Singapore was overcrowded, there was poor

infrastructure, a lack of housing and employment and many slums and unauthorized

buildings. On becoming independent from Malaysia in 1965, Singapore had the driving force

of strong political leadership coupled with a supportive mandate from its citizens to enforce

urban development plans. Government seized the opportunity and set out a macro-level

blueprint to guide land usage to maximize support of the future population and economic

growth - and then translated the vision into detailed guidelines. In the construction sector

there were 16 agencies that issued permits at different stages of the construction process, from

Building Control and Structural safety, Drainage, Sewerage and Water Utilities to Land

Registration and Ownership. From 1965, Singapore reformed physical development

regulations and from the early 80‟s leveraged the benefits of IT to ensure better control,

enforcement, and co-ordination between these 16 bodies. The flagship program for the

construction sector, Construction and Real Estate Network (CORENET) was detailed for

implementation under Singapore‟s IT2000 Master plan. Once in place the contract was

awarded in June 2000 and launched in November 2001.

In Muscat and Oman there were also tens of agencies – some were even assigned to different

geographical locations as well as different areas of responsibility in Oman. For example

Muscat Municipality only supervised concomitant services in Muscat while Municipal Affairs

Regional Municipality oversaw the rest of the country. As previously mentioned, many of the

agencies were still operating on paper themselves. It was clear that the Muscat Municipality

would have to build a system from the bottom up as compared with the top-down approach in

Singapore.

10

IT Development

The principal concerns for all countries looking to digitize their construction permit system

were based on the intrinsic nature of computer technology. Security, interoperability with

other related agencies and the resilience of an archive that was purely electronically based

were issues for concern. In many countries too, there were questions around the integrity of

Building Information Models (BIM).

In Oman, BIM was not yet a factor, but it was nevertheless a huge undertaking as an IT

project. There were two aspects to the change - one to follow through on the new workflow

patterns and the other to accommodate all parts of the application and its procession through

the various stages. Most importantly, the entire development had to be bilingual – English

and Arabic. Locally based companies pitched different approaches to the Municipality and

one was appointed to build the new CRM program over two years, using Oracle E-Business

Suite. During development they discovered that the existing windows machines were too

slow for the new program and the hardware was replaced with Sun Solaris machines. It fell to

IT to advise on the update machines at consultant level and to train all users.

Implementation – the Human Factor

Consultants were reluctant to begin using a new system, not sure that it would work and

cynical about the implication that they would no longer be directly involved with the

municipality officials. There was new software to be bought, learned and implemented. To

motivate consultants to join the pilot Al Hashmi offered an incentive. Prior to the reforms,

because of the lack of resources, consultants had only been permitted to submit one

construction permit application per day – for those that were willing to be guinea-pigs on the

new system, Al Hashmi lifted this restriction. He was looking for three volunteers but six

stepped forward with this tactic in play.

After working through a phase ironing out the inevitable bugs that come with a newly

developed program, Al Hashmi felt the system was ready to launch to all consultants. Wise to

the positive reaction from the subjects of the pilot, he first encouraged conversion to the new

system by giving priority to digital submissions. Finally he imposed a deadline of January

2012 for all submissions to be digital and only a handful of consultants were unable to

comply. He gave these few two months grace and by the start of March 2012, the system was

completely paperless.

Much care was taken to create a space alongside the digital system where meaningful

discussion and queries were heard. Consultants were able to access architects and officials by

phone – the new process made it very clear which officials were assigned to which

submission. They were also alerted to a change in status on their permit progress so time was

not lost if further action was required by them. In addition, His Excellency scheduled every

Monday as citizen‟s day for anyone who wanted to be heard.

The new system allowed for parallel processing. As soon as the completed submission was

received, a provisional permit was issued so owners could give their builders leave to begin

mobilization or excavation.

11

“I think that is where the best achievement, the biggest performance change is

seen – in squeezing all these procedures parallel – apart from of course moving

the process into a completely digital permit.”

. H.E. Al Harthy

No time was lost and every submission was treated equally by date. Consultants that had not

performed well were forced to put their houses in order, update their own computer systems

and re-engineer their own processes.

“Before, basically some consultants were only doing a third of what they were

supposed to. They knew that the municipality would fix it, would audit it, arrange

the file. Muscat Municipality was just another unit in their office. So we reduced

this and the whole scope of the consultant was restored back to them.”

H.E. Al Harthy

Consultants were now deaf to their client‟s reassurances that they had social connections in

the municipality – and consequently no longer taking the risk of including design elements

that were not compliant with regulations.

However, in 2013 the system was relatively new and citizens, out of cultural habit, still felt

the need to represent their applications in person. His Excellency hoped that once nature of

the transparent system was understood that the number of visits would diminish

exponentially. He observed, “It (system) doesn‟t recognize tribes or social status”. The

ultimate aim was that consultants represent their clients exclusively at the Municipality.

In the mean time, the social construct remained. It was simply inappropriate to be mechanical

or methodical when dealing with people. It was more characteristic to be “gentler, more

social and diplomatic.”

Influence

The Muscat Municipality was by then the only agency in Muscat to be digitized (other agency

permissions were still on paper and scanned copies of these were sent in with the building

permit application). Much as they stood alone in this regard, the influence they exerted on

their peer agencies was palpable. Ironically it was the consultants that had been reluctant in at

introduction that were the most enthusiastic supporters of the scheme.

A consultant explained the benefits. His architects and engineers were now purely focused on

tasks requiring their specific skillset. This and the speed of process meant they were able to

take on close to two thirds more projects. The PRO (fixer) had habitually visited the

Municipality three times a day; the new arrangement only required his presence about once a

week. Architects or structural engineers only needed to consult once every couple of months

and had prompt service with a clear line of enquiry by telephone, Internet and SMS. He could

access his application and its progress at any time and he benefited from a secure archive of

his own projects instead of having to file and track reams of paper. Several consultants

expressed the wish that other agencies would adopt the same system. It was frustrating to

submit a design that had been approved in Muscat for another part of Oman and go through a

12

lengthy process. Some of these agencies approached Muscat Municipality to consult with

them on how best to implement such systems.

A one-stop system where all agencies could share a portal and preclude consultants re-

entering details for each necessary permit or license was the ultimate aim. Merging systems

like the GIS (geographic information system), zoning information, water system and other

factors means consultants would be wise to the conditions of the property and the salient

building codes from the start of each project. All pertinent permits could be applied for

simultaneously, introducing a parallel rather than sequential process to save yet more time.

Future plans also included other aspects of the reform conditions mentioned in the

introduction including reform of the building code. It was hoped to influence best practice in

the building fraternity in the same way it had been effective in the consultant‟s case.

While the new system exchanged ambiguity for transparency, H.E. Al Harthy was aware of

the thin line he must tread in the Middle East context so that he could introduce change

without creating conflict of a different nature.

“Being in this part of the world you cannot but meet people and a very dramatic

change, a very abrupt change would actually disturb them and that would cause a

lot of resistance from everybody, even public opinion would rise against you. So

the best way is to move on many fronts for a change and of course that takes a lot.

I don‟t think in the West, the developed world, even in the East that owners and

citizens usually go and meet the mayor for a small change on a plan. Here you

cannot avoid that and that is the challenge that we have that they don‟t need to

meet.”

13

Exhibit 2: Building Permit Application Steps at 2013

1. Consultant issued with username and password to access the Building Permit website.

2. Consultant submits digital form, land details; approval scans from appropriate agencies, drawings (architectural and structural).

3. Registrars check data. If complete assigns it to an architect.

4. Architect checks drawings in Adobe Acrobat (PDF), returns to

consultant if changes. If approved passes to structural engineer.

5. Structural engineer checks structural drawings and comments if

necessary and returns to consultant.

6. Consultant corrects drawings as requested and re-submits to

directorate staffer who sent request.

7. Same directorate staffer checks change for compliance. If staffer

was the structural engineer, resubmits to architect for approval.

8. Director scans drawings once approved by both architect and

structural engineer.

9. Consultant office pays applicable fees via website by credit card.

When transaction confirmed, Registrar stamps electronic drawings.

10. Consultant office prints the electronic building permit with

stamped drawings.

14

Resources:

Building Smart – A Strategy for Implementation of BIM Solution in Singapore

CORENET – Teo Ai Lin, Evelyn and Cheng Tai Fatt

CORENET e-PlanCheck: Singapore's Automated Code Checking System

AECbytes "Building the Future" Article (October 26, 2005)

World Bank. 2013. Doing Business 2013: Smarter Regulations for

Small and Medium-Size Enterprises. Washington, DC: World Bank Group. DOI:

10.1596/978-0-8213-9615-5. License: Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT:

Electronic Permitting Systems and How to Implement them

by the National Institute of Building Sciences, Washington, D.C.

under Contract C-OPC-21204 April 2002

Economics & Development | Global Arab Network

Global Arab Network - - Sarah Khan, 9/3/2012

Good Practices for Construction Regulation and Enforcement Reform

Guidelines for Reformers January 2013. World Bank

www.wbginvestmentclimate.org

E-

HUONG HA, KEN COGHILL, Department of Management, Monash University, Australia

The Global Competitiveness Report 2012–2013

Professor Klaus Schwab World Economic Forum

Oman Economic Vision 2020:

http://www.moneoman.gov.om/PublicationAttachment/Oman%20Dev.%206Ed.pdf

Interviews conducted with Municipality Staff and external consultants.

Construction sector - Robust growth in the coming years in Oman