Manama: Cases of corruption and administrative and financial irregularities are slowly emerging in the investigations conducted on 50 high-profile people detained in Saudi Arabia on suspicion of corruption.
Saudi authorities on Saturday arrested princes, former ministers and businessmen in a massive anti-graft drive.
In one case, a former minister granted astronomical salaries to some department heads, amounting to 150,000 Saudi riyals (Dh146,859) a month in addition to allowances.
Some of the secretarial staff received salaries of up to SR30,000 a month, paid through companies under contracts worth millions, Saudi daily Okaz reported on Wednesday.
A contract was signed with an employee as adviser and director of the transfer office in the ministry with a monthly salary of more than SR 50,000.
The ex-minister also hired relatives as consultants for monthly salaries ranging from SR50,000 and SR90,000.
Excesses were also discovered in contracts with companies, the daily added.
The former minister signed a contract with a private media company to run the ministry’s account on Twitter, post awareness content and interact online with users.
The former minister is also suspected to have squandered SR10.3 million on contracts with a private company to run an advertising campaign for seven weeks, and SR8.9 million on training staff. The programmes were cancelled for their poor quality and modest output.
The minister who replaced him cancelled and suspended 38 of the 148 contracts by the ministry amid suspicions of financial irregularities.
