JEDDAH — A total budgetary allocations amounting to SR12.7 billion have been set aside to beneficiaries of Saudi Arabia's Golden Handshake Program during the fiscal years of 2025, 2026 and 2027. The program aims to motivate those public sector employees who want to resign from service, according to the salient features of the program published by Okaz newspaper. The details of the rules include provision of financial incentive to the resigning employee, specifying the age groups of the targeted employees, years of service, approval of the targeted entity and employee. According to the rules, priority will be given to those who have the lowest qualifications and then eventually obtaining higher qualifications, and adoption of measures to cancel the resigning employee's job except for jobs classified as supervisory. It is stipulated that no government agency shall employ anyone who had previously benefited from the program, and that the employee shall not benefit from the program except after exhausting other options such as transfer, taking a loan, or rebuilding his skills to benefit from him in the most in-demand job tasks. The program also includes the mechanism for the government agency to announce the program to its employees targeted by the program in a way that ensures clarification of their rights and obligations if they agree to benefit from it. The rules also stipulate that no one who meets the terms and conditions of early retirement shall benefit from the program. The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development (MHRSD) shall approve the controls, terms and conditions, procedures and mechanisms for the program. According to the rules, Ministry of Finance and MHRSD shall review annually, as necessary, with the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI), the Pension Law Reform Committee, and the Social Support and Assistance System Committee, within the limits of their jurisdiction, the controls, terms and conditions, procedures and mechanisms. According to the rules of the Golden Handshake Program, ministries, public bodies, institutions and other bodies, which have special regulations for their employees subject to the Labor Law and the Insurance Law or the Civil Pension Law, can formulate programs aimed at motivating their employees to leave service through resignation, under the following circumstances. Firstly, if the entity is not funded from the state's general budget, and has a board of directors or the like, and the board may develop programs it deems appropriate to motivate leaving service, provided that the entity calculates the additional financial costs that may incur on either the Civil Pension Law or Social Insurance Law as a result of any of these programs before implementing them, in coordination with the GOSI. Secondly, if the entity is not funded from the state's general budget, and has a board of directors or the like, and the board may develop programs it deems appropriate to motivate leaving service, provided that the entity adheres to the controls, terms and conditions, procedures and mechanisms specified by the Minister of Finance and Minister of Human Resources and Social Development when developing the program. Third: If the entity is funded from the state's general budget and does not have a board of directors or the like, then the Golden Handshake Program referred to in paragraph 1 of the clause shall be applied, and Minister of Finance and Minister of Human Resources and Social Development shall determine the controls, terms and conditions, procedures and mechanisms for the program. The mechanisms included authorizing Minister of Finance, if necessary, to arrange and add what is necessary from the amount stated in the decision, during the fiscal year 1446/1447 AH (2025) in an amount not exceeding SR5,059,700,000 to the general budget for the fiscal year 1446/1447 AH (2025), and creating an item in the budget of the MHRSD allocated to the Golden Handshake Program, in accordance with the rules and procedures regulating it. The spending from the amount shall be limited to the purpose for which it is allocated, and the Minister of Finance shall be granted the authority to transfer from the item allocated to the Golden Handshake Program to the budgets of other entities that will benefit from the program in accordance with the procedures followed. The MHRSD shall include the necessary amounts for the fiscal years 1447/1448 AH (2026) and 1448/1449 AH (2027) for the Golden Handshake Program from the aforementioned amount, when discussing its budget within the draft state general budget, and coordinating with the Ministry of Finance regarding the financial requirements for implementing quick gains and comprehensive strategic paths to rationalize and sustain the public sector wage bill, estimated at SR22,980,600 for the coming years. The government agencies whose employees are subject to the civil service ladders shall fill a percentage of their positions through partial retirement in accordance with the organizing provisions, and this percentage shall be determined by agreement between government agencies and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development. Human Resources Specialist Dr. Adel Al-Ghamdi said that the Golden Handshake Law is related to reducing costs and identifies the targeted age groups. He said that the decision will be implemented from this year's budget until 2027, by submitting an offer to employees wishing to resign, after the approval of both parties, the government agency and the employee, and this will not be done until all solutions have been exhausted, such as transfer to another agency, loan, or developing the employee's skills. Anyone who benefits from this program will not be accepted in any government agency. He explained that the Ministries of Human Resources and Finance are responsible for identifying vacant positions in government agencies that have been vacant for five years or more, in coordination with the relevant authorities. These ministries have to make the necessary arrangements to cancel the newly created position for the government agency in the state's general budget in the future, if it is not filled within two years from the date of its creation, Al-Ghamdi pointed out.
