Saudi Arabia offers rewards of up to SR10 million for reporting unknown endowments

Dubai: Saudi Arabia’s General Authority for Endowments has set rewards of up to SR10 million for people who report previously unknown endowments, under new regulations aimed at identifying and reviving endowment assets whose status or benefits have been lost or suspended.

The reward will be capped at 5 per cent of the value of the endowment property, with an overall ceiling of SR10 million.

The measure forms part of regulations governing unknown and dormant endowments, designed to establish procedures for identifying, resolving and reviving such assets while respecting the intentions and conditions set by donors and supporting their long-term sustainability and development.

The authority can identify unknown or dormant endowments through reports from the public, information obtained from government and judicial bodies or requests for its intervention from other entities.

An unknown endowment includes one where there is no trustee, where a trustee or person in possession conceals its existence, or where a trustee is unaware of the asset’s location, their trusteeship or documents establishing its ownership or endowment status.

A dormant endowment is one whose principal revenues have completely ceased for two consecutive years, or where the direct benefit from an endowed asset has been entirely suspended for the same period under the donor’s stipulated conditions.

Reports of unknown endowments must concern cases not already known to the authority and be supported by valid evidence. They must be submitted through the authority’s designated channels and generally must not have been reported previously. There must also be no pending lawsuit concerning the trusteeship, establishment or entitlement to the endowment.

Eligible reporters can receive a reward determined by the Committee for Unknown Endowments after the case has been addressed and the property valued. The committee will consider the strength of the evidence, the effort involved in resolving the case and the resulting benefit to the endowment.

Endowment administrators and people who have encroached upon an endowment are not eligible for rewards.

Where several people report the same endowment, priority generally goes to the first reporter. However, the committee can reward subsequent reporters or others whose information or efforts materially contributed to resolving the case.