Dispute stalls launch of nationwide anti-smoking campaign

RIYADH, 13 December — The ongoing dispute between two anti-smoking bodies — the Charity Society Against Smoking and the Supreme Committee for the National Campaign Against Smoking — has delayed the launch of a nationwide campaign against the scourge for more than two years.

Abdullah Al-Baddah, president of the charity society, said his group was entrusted with organizing the awareness campaign as per a royal decree issued two years ago.

As per the order, the campaign, to be launched with private sector funding, was to target government departments, students and youths in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam.

Al-Baddah said the society had signed a three-year contract with a private firm to promote the campaign. Later the society made an attempt to cancel the contract with the company, Saudi Caravan for Campaign, because it did not fulfill certain conditions in the contract, he said.

“The campaign did not start and we have been put in an embarrassing position,” Al-Baddah said.

His attempt to cancel the contract met with resistance from the company which demanded a compensation of between SR1.5 million and SR3 million, he said.

Refuting the charges, Ali Al-Amri, director general of the company, who is also the chairman of the national committee for the anti-smoking campaign, claimed that he had agreed with the society to implement the project “under the society’s banner and supervision to give the campaign credibility and acceptability.”

Denying that he demanded any compensation for canceling the contract, Al-Amri said the society had harassed him by questioning the validity of the contract. He said he had copies of the warning letters sent by the society to the government departments against dealing with him.

Al-Baddah said the society had demanded cancellation of the contract eight months after its signing because the company delayed the launch of the campaign which should have been taken place on the World Day to Combat Smoking.

Al-Baddah accused Al-Amri of signing the contract with the society while he was away on a foreign tour by giving tall promises which did not materialize.

The society could not cancel the campaign contract because of a clause that it could be done only with the agreement of both the parties.

However, Al-Amri assured that the campaign will go ahead despite “the obstacles put in front of it by the society. It will be done even if the supreme committee has to meet the expenses on its own.”