JEDDAH, 5 July 2005 — The misuse of government cars by officials is on the rise and many have called for a stricter regime in the use of the cars, Al-Madinah newspaper reported.

Some of the officials have been using government cars to take their children to and from school, drive their wives to work. Sometimes they even give them to their children to run their own errands. Officials and government employees are demanding an end of this misuse.

An official employed in one government department, who refused to reveal his name, spoke about the misuse of government cars. He said there were more than 30 cars with official logos on their sides in his department. The general manager of the department ordered the logos erased and the cars repainted so that they looked like ordinary ones. He then distributed the newly painted cars to officials in his department.

These officials gave the cars they received to their drivers or to their sons to use for their family’s private needs. “The worst thing is that most of official’s sons are using the cars for joyriding,” he said. “The department I work in is a service department. Most of the services that we are supposed to give to the public are delayed because of lack of availability of cars.”

A Saudi citizen told Madinah newspaper that his neighbor is a president of a municipality branch and he has three government cars that he repainted for private use.

He said that the man and his sons are using these cars for private purposes. No one suspects that these cars are government vehicles because there are no logos on the side. The informant said that some of them are even using government cars to transport animals in and from their farms.

Saeed Al-Thubaiti, an employee in a government department, suggested that government cars should be given special license plates.

“The government logo can be painted out and the car turned into a private one. If the government cars have special license plates then no one can misuse them.”

Muhammad Al-Zahrani, another government worker, thought that the easy way is to put special license on these cars to avoid misuse. “This way police will also take note that these are government cars and are being used for no other purposes other than government work.”