RIYADH: Osama Faqeeh, head of the General Auditing Bureau, yesterday met Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah and sought his full support for the bureau to carry out its mission effectively.
“The bureau requires your continuous support to carry out its duties in an unbiased and objective manner,” Faqeeh told the king during a meeting at Al-Yamamah Palace.
King Abdullah commended the efforts of the bureau’s officials.
“We also request you to instruct government departments to cooperate fully with the bureau in order to do its duty with complete independence,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted Faqeeh as saying.
He said such a cooperation was essential to cope with huge expansion in government spending on development projects and large-scale investment programs across the country.
Faqeeh lauded King Abdullah’s reform program to improve the performance of government departments. He said the bureau has been focusing on rationalizing public expenditures and better utilization of public money to achieve sustained development in all parts of the Kingdom.
He said the bureau’s annual report for 2007 included results of auditing accounts of various government departments and public corporations.
Faqeeh said many government departments spent money without authority and without issuing bills. He also noticed a lack of follow up on implementation of projects, negligence in applying contract terms and a laxity in generating state revenues. “Some government departments and agencies do not abide by financial and budgetary regulations. They also fail to prepare final account statements on time,” he said and called for greater efforts to collect revenues.
