Abdul Rahim Ismael Mohammed Al Zarouni has been the Director of Financial Management Department in the Ministry of Finance since 2009. In a career spanning 21 years, Mr. Zarouni has held key positions in finance, auditing, information systems and strategic planning across various government departments.
Mr. Zarouni has established the Strategic Planning and Performance Department in the Ministry and has supervised its activities. Earlier, Mr. Zarouni has assumed the role of Director of Federal Payroll Auditing Department in addition to his responsibilities at the Financial Auditing Department. He was responsible for pre-auditing public annual budgets items execution pertaining to state ministries through 24 audit units encompassing a team of over 110 financial controllers.
Mr. Zarouni has served the Ministry of Finance since 2001, when he joined as Director of Federal Payroll Department, and was responsible for auditing expenses and salaries of over 80,000 employees working with federal ministries and agencies. In 2002, his responsibilities expanded to include the role of Director, Auditing Department until early 2009.
He was later appointed Director of Information Systems Department and Director of Finance and Administration Department. In his challenging dual role, he was responsible for supervising the Central Electronic Systems used across ministries, as well as overseeing and developing the Electronic Link Network among federal entities. He was also entrusted with the task of overseeing the e-Government project and managing its sub-projects. He also supervised the implementation plans of decentralization system and transfer of financial control authorities to the ministries.
Prior to joining Ministry of Finance, Mr. Zarouni has performed financial auditing activities for around 12 years in State Audit Institution for many significant federal entities. These entities included National Human Resources Employment & Development, Public Authority for Youth Welfare, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Defense, in addition to sports clubs and federations, EMPOST, Public Associations & Clubs and Emirates University.
As an aside to his executive commitments, Mr. Zarouni is also a board member for prestigious government and non-government associations such as Federal Water and Electricity Authority, Marriage Fund Foundation, General Civil Aviation Authority, Nursing Institutes of the Ministry of Health, Foundation Society of Accountants and Auditors, Emirates Authors and Writers Federation, and International Islamic Literature Association.
Mr. Zarouni acquired his Bachelor degree with majors in Accountancy in specialization in Information System Management (MIS) from Emirates University in 1989. He also completed Executive Management Certificate Programme (EMCP) at the Yale School of Management, USA in 2005.
Born in October 1967, Mr. Zarouni is an avid reader of autobiographies, leadership, poetry and literary studies. He is ardently involved in Arabic poetry writing; two collections of poems have been issued under his name and have been presented in Bahrain and Lebanon Poetry festivals. He also shares a passion for photography and arts.