Abu Dhabi: Saudi Arabia’s anti-corruption watchdog “Nazaha” (Integrity) began a far-reaching campaign against graft last month across the kingdom.
An official source in the Saudi Anti-Corruption Commission said interrogations began last month in 105 cases. These were the most prominent cases dealt with:
1st case:
Three employees of the Saudi Electricity Company were arrested on charges of obtaining financial bribes amounting to 535,000 euros from a French company and depositing the money in bank accounts in one of the countries (at the request of the company) to receive these amounts with the aim of disguising their source ( money laundering) and someone transferring part of the bribe to his bank account in another country with the aim of transferring it to his bank account inside the kingdom.
Likewise, the French company delivered approximately 30,000 euros as expenses for travel, accommodation and subsistence during their visit to the company’s headquarters in France and meeting with the executives there without the Saudi Electricity Company’s knowledge, and that was in exchange for their acceptance of the French company’s products and increasing purchase orders on those products using their positions, and one of them got a bribe of 800,000 riyals from suppliers inside the kingdom in exchange for awarding supply contracts in their favour from the Saudi Electricity Company.
2nd case:
A faculty member of a university was arrested on charges of requesting financial 80,000 riyals as a bribe from a number of operating companies at the university, as well as requesting 20 per cent of the value of one of the university’s contracts with the operating companies as a commission, using his influence.
3rd case:
In cooperation with the Saudi Ministry of Housing, three brothers were arrested, one of whom works in one of the military sectors, and the other two (real estate appraisers) in one of the evaluation companies approved by the Ministry of Housing, and using them to their advantage and communicating with the property owners and agreeing with them to raise the market value by approximately one million riyals, provided that the excess amount becomes their share.
4th case:
A doctor at the Ministry of Health in one of the regions of the kingdom was arrested for having, while supervising health quarantines for cases infected with coronavirus, manipulated and violated the pandemic preventive systems by admitting an uninfected case to the quarantine facility to join her infected family and then smuggling the same family to their home before fully recovering from the virus, taking advantage of his influence .
5th case:
An employee of the Ministry of Education was arrested for duping unsuspected citizens into believing he can give them jobs, against a bribe from each applicant.
6th case:
A brigadier general in the police of one of the regions of the kingdom was arrested for exploiting his influence to move in the official vehicle to facilitate the passage of another private vehicle through security checkpoints in an irregular manner during the curfew.
7th case:
In cooperation with the Ministry of Interior (Public Security), a police official was arrested for requesting a bribe from expatriates in exchange for the abolition of curfew violations, taking advantage of his position.
8th case:
In cooperation with the General Authority of Customs, five customs officials were arrested for fraud and bribery by exploiting their influence and tampering with orders and instructions by writing their names with records of smuggling seizures they were not involved in, to obtain financial rewards amounting to 264.000 riyals.
9th case:
In cooperation with the Public Prosecution, an employee of the Public Prosecution was arrested as he was receiving 30,000 riyals as a down payment of a bribe of 110,000, in exchange for handing a citizen out of his transaction and clearing the archived copies at the Public Prosecution.
10th case:
A businessman who owns a hospital in one of the governorates was arrested for fraud after providing unwarranted COVID-19 relief assistance amounting to 1.5 million riyals to workers in the private sector.
11th case:
In cooperation with the Ministry of Interior (Public Security), the head of the criminal investigation unit in one of the police departments (with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel) was arrested for exploiting his position by releasing four migrants and stopped searching for them not handing them over to the competent authority, in exchange for obtaining smart phone devices as a bribe.
12th case:
Two electricity company project engineers were arrested for manipulating the specifications of some projects, which resulted in an increase in the value of one of the projects amounted to 400,000 riyals, in violation of their job duties.
13th case:
An employee of the Ministry of Information was arrested for using his influence to include the name of one of his acquaintances within the employees of the office in an irregular manner to enable him to obtain an exemption card from the entry and exit fees.