RIYADH, 20 August — Authorities are investigating an engineering office in Riyadh which allegedly forged the signatures of municipality officials to establish a large housing project in the city.

A Riyadh Municipality source told Arab News that it would take punitive action against the office.

Work on the housing estate, situated on the eastern side of the ring road, started months before the scandal was revealed. Al-Saab Housing Projects, which was in charge of the project and did not know about the forgery, was building 295 housing units, including large and small villas.

Ibrahim Abdul Kareem Al-Saab, chairman of Al-Saab Housing Projects, said he was surprised to learn about the scandal after the housing project’s documents were checked by the municipal office in Rouda.

Al-Saab was planning to sell part of his own 10,000 square-meter plot in the area. While processing the papers, he was told about the forgery by the municipality.

Informed sources said the engineering office had presented the construction plan and building permits to Al-Saab company by forging the signatures of the members of the technical committee, which is responsible for endorsing such documents. The engineering office, which was following up the papers at government offices for clearance, forged the signatures so they could start the project quickly.

Al-Saab said he found out the forgery when he approached the Notary Public’s Office to sell part of his land.

“The notary asked me to contact the Rouda municipal office to make sure the technical committee’s report on the housing plan was sound,” he explained.

It was at this stage that the municipal chairman said the signatures were forged.

According to the sources, the Riyadh Municipality redrew the housing project plan because, as its own rules and regulations stipulate, 33 percent of the land should be allocated for public facilities such as mosques, streets and parks.