JEDDAH, 7 March 2003 — Saudi Arabia’s bureaucracy should change with the times and not get bogged down in procedures, according to Dr. Ibrahim Al-Awaji, a leading intellectual and former bureaucrat.

In a wide-ranging interview with Al-Eqtisadiah, a sister publication of Arab News, Awaji criticized the slow pace at which regulations are revised under the pretext of procedural bottlenecks, despite the fact that the higher authorities are calling for speedy changes and reforms.

“The present system for revising rules and regulations will not help the government achieve its objectives quickly, for the simple reason that the system is very slow,” he pointed out.

Awaji, a former Interior Ministry undersecretary, urged government officials to trust their personal feelings about official systems and procedures.

“I have a personal take on rules and regulations: While respecting the text of a rule, officials must also appreciate its spirit,” he said.

“If an official finds the wording of a rule in conflict with its spirit and objective in a particular case, then he should work in the interest of the system to achieve its objective, instead of literally following the wording.”

“The biggest mistake officials make is that they look at rules and regulations as something rigid and sacrosanct,” he explained.

“Rules and regulations are prepared by experts and endorsed by Royal Decree. A fast-changing environment requires flexibility in the application of these rules and so they must be reviewed by officials, especially the Shoura Council,” he told the business daily.

He commended the Shoura’s role in making rules and regulations more appropriate to present-day requirements. “The Kingdom needs a different system now that the boom is over to tackle social and economic issues,” he said.

Awaji called for a national data center, as a lack of correct information was hampering government efforts to solve problems.

He also called for sound planning to achieve continuous development, saying weak planning was one of the side effects of the oil boom. He said the present system of referring issues to various committees was consuming time and energy, and delaying development.

“In my assessment, there are still many regulations which must be changed or revised to keep pace with modern developments,” he said, noting the Supreme Economic Council’s efforts in upgrading regulations and issuing new ones without being affected by routine procedures.

He said the Saudis’ general awareness has increased as a result of their contact with other cultures and better education.

“The needs of an educated person are different from those of an uneducated person,” he pointed out.

He also said there was a lack of long-term national plan for the middle class.

“We have been in a state of excitement during the boom period and as a result of that we did not plan properly for the post-boom period,” he said.

“We have set up a number of universities with beautiful buildings, thinking that universities can do everything. We did not think that development needed skills rather than certificates,” he explained.

Awaji emphasized the need for training Saudi manpower to meet development requirements.

“We have to plan for problems before they erupt. Dealing with an issue after the event is not the same as tackling it before it happens. This can be done through sound planning based on scientific studies and correct data,” he said.

He said the Kingdom faced many problems for want of proper planning, such as unemployment and lack of sufficient openings in universities to accommodate secondary school graduates.

“But there is an important factor missing. You cannot make appropriate decisions without correct information,” he pointed out.

“There is a lack of correct information at the departments of education and employment about the requirement of the labor market and the specializations it needs. Information is essential to revise educational and training programs in accordance with market requirements,” he said.

Awaji urged authorities to allocate more funds for scientific studies.

“The budget for scientific research in Sweden equals the budget allocations for education in many countries,” he added, while stressing the role of universities in promoting scientific research in the Kingdom.