Last year, a local newspaper reported the case of 14 customs officials taken to court. They were charged with accepting bribes of up to SR3 million.
What they did was to allow cargo from a local company to move in and out of the Kingdom without paying customs fees; in other words, the country was cheated of millions of riyals.
Part of the money not paid went into the pockets of the officials, who included a legal consultant and a number of employees in the customs department.
What is needed is transparency; the details of this incident as well as the names of the guilty should be published in the media and announced to the public.
Citizens have the right to know these things because they are part of society and partners in everything that is of interest to the country.
Any violation of the country’s interest is a violation of the citizen’s rights — especially since we do not know about earlier incidents that might have been far worse but which were covered up and concealed from the public. It is very important that people do not lose trust in what is happening behind closed doors.
People want to feel that those who break the laws will receive the appropriate punishment. If this were always the case, it would be a deterrent for those who want to commit such crimes.
One problem here is that the incident involving the customs officials was not the first of its kind to have happened. There have been dozens — even hundreds — of similar ones.
For example, we remember the SAWA scandal and many other financial frauds and irregularities; what is common to them all is that those who are guilty have not been punished.
The same is true in many other cases of embezzlement, fraud, bribery and bad checks; a decision needs to be made to announce the names of offenders and make them public.
Many people say that if we fail to announce the crimes and the criminals then the criminals are protected. All citizens have a right to know. The honest pay the price for the few who are dishonest.
The mistakes that have been made were — and are — intentional. They were committed for nothing but greed. Those who are guilty and those who have aided and abetted them deserve no mercy at all.
