Manama - King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz on Tuesday expressed gratitude to Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman and to the members of the ad-hoc committee set up to fight corruption.
The Saudi monarch who was chairing the weekly session of the cabinet in Riyadh lauded the efforts of the committee established in November 2017 and wrapped up last week.
The committee, chaired by Prince Mohammad, allowed the kingdom to recover more than $106 billion in financial settlements.
The Saudi state will continue to uphold integrity, fight and eliminate corruption and deter anyone who is tempted to encroach on public funds and abuse them, the king said.
The supervisory and monitoring agencies should reinforce their role in the exercise of their competences in a way that ensures effectiveness in protecting and preserving public funds, he said, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The assets recovered by the committee during its 15-month tenure included real estate, commercial entities, securities and cash surrendered by princes, senior officials and business tycoons who were investigated as part of the ant-corruption campaign.
The anti-corruption committee had summoned 381 individuals, including some individuals who were requested to present their testimonies.
The committee reached settlements with 87 who admitted the charges against them and accepted an out-of-court deal and referred 56 to the public prosecution for further investigations after the prosecutor declined settlement due to existing criminal cases against them.
Only eight people refused settlements and they were referred to the public prosecution as required by the law.
On Monday, the kingdom’s Attorney-General Saud Al Mojeb stressed that corruption was not limited to a company or government departments and warned there would be a follow-up of corrupt companies by the competent authorities.
