On Tuesday, the National Authority for Oversight and Anti-Corruption (Nazaha) announced the arrest of several government officials, citizens and expatriates accused of corruption. A number of crimes were charged against them, including bribery, abuse of power, money laundering, and forgery. Legal measures against them are in the process of being completed.
Expatriates were arrested for obtaining an amount of SR6.6 million from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Development in exchange for completing service procedures related to the change of profession of expatriate workers, and for canceling the final exit visa illegally, according to the Ministry of Interior. During the completion of the transactions, a remote work employee detained in connection with a criminal case was granted access to the ministry's computer system. Through a colleague in the ministry, the employee handed over his mobile phone, which received verification messages, to the expatriate to misuse.
A total of 5,663 transactions were conducted in this way, resulting in SR75.75 million of fines and fees not being paid to the state treasury as a result. Three citizens were arrested for playing the role of brokers in receiving transactions and receiving financial consideration for completing them in an irregular manner, in return for SR800,000.
An employee of a university was arrested for corruption. In his capacity as director of the Department of Remuneration for Male and Female Students at the university, he misappropriated SR6496304 by including the bank accounts of his wife and her two brothers on the remuneration list.
Another expatriate was arrested for stealing SR8.84 million from the account of an Execution Court by forging bank checks issued from that account and giving them to a citizen and two expatriates to disburse. Both citizens and expatriates were arrested.
Directors of self-resources, directors of financial affairs in health affairs, directors of hospital maintenance and operation, and an expatriate working as CEO of a commercial entity have been arrested for presenting fictitious projects to the entity, spending their value without implementing them on the ground, and sharing their value, totaling about SR1.41 million.
An additional businessman and his brother, who works in the education department, were also arrested for concluding agreements with commercial entities to award projects to the department at SR1.68 million through his brother in exchange for sharing the sums without implementing them on the ground.
A former assistant director of health affairs for engineering projects was also arrested on corruption charges. In exchange for SR432270, he authorized a commercial entity owned by his relative to implement projects belonging to the directorate with SR927350 and to pay the institution's dues in violation of the system.
The Health Affairs department arrested four expatriates for taking and selling medicines worth SR306461 from a warehouse of medical supplies. SR 57,073 was transferred to two employees' accounts with incorrect exchange credentials from the education department's bank account by two employees in the department.
An expat working for a commercial entity was caught red-handed when he accepted SR100000 from SR400000 agreed upon in return for completing procedures for disbursing financial amounts to a contracting company. Another expatriate received SR30000 for canceling fines against another expatriate from the computer system of the General Directorate of Passports (Jawazat). As a result of his involvement in canceling fines in an illegal manner with accepting money in return, a non-commissioned Jawazat officer was also arrested.
In exchange for not issuing a violation against a commercial entity, a municipal employee received SR13000. An expatriate working in an engineering office was caught red-handed when he received SR5000 instead of the SR15000 agreed upon for lifting the suspension of a citizen's commercial activity license.
Another expatriate working for a company contracted with the National Water Company (NWC) was caught red-handed when he received SR3000 for delivering water in an irregular manner. Another expatriate engineer contracted with NWC was caught red-handed receiving SR2500 from a citizen in exchange for reducing his water consumption.
According to the statement, an expatriate was arrested for trying to smuggle eight gold bars out of Saudi Arabia through an airport. In exchange for allowing him to take the remaining quantity in his possession, the man offered two bars as bribery to a customs officer.
A second expat, who works for a company that conducts periodic technical inspections of vehicles, was arrested for failing the test without examining the vehicle. Additionally, a number of citizens and expatriates were arrested in different regions of the Kingdom. For their release and failure to take legal action against the security men for the violations they had committed, they offered sums of money to them.
According to Nazaha, anyone encroaching on public money or misusing his position or job to serve his personal interests or to harm the public interest will continue to be monitored and controlled. Since financial and administrative corruption crimes do not fall under the statute of limitations, they will be held accountable even after they leave their positions. Additionally, the authority reiterated that it will continue to enforce the law against transgressors without leniency or complacency.
