JEDDAH: A committee has concluded that several government officials, posing as victims of the Nov. 25 flashfloods in Jeddah, pocketed government assistance and compensation, Al-Madinah newspaper reported on Thursday.
“The officials who made false claims come from various offices, including security departments, the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs and Ministry of Health. Their names will be sent to the authorities concerned for further action,” the newspaper quoted an anonymous source at the Ministry of Finance as saying.
The source added that the Finance Ministry requested all families staying in apartments provided by the government to cooperate with a second committee that was verifying the extent of losses they suffered and to evaluate their situations to determine their continued need for government assistance.
“The committee detected during its visits that several families made false claims of having more members in their families than they actually had in order to claim more compensation and other forms of aid,” said the source. “They supported their claims by bringing children and others from outside their families when the inspectors visited them.”
The government is currently paying 70 percent of market value for apartments rented on behalf of the flood victims, the source pointed out. The committee will also add poor families, particularly women, to the list of those eligible for monthly pensions distributed by the General Organization for Social Insurance.
Meanwhile, Civil Defense urged all affected Saudi families selected for compensation to visit the office of the field committee investigating their cases. The committee is currently operating in the Civil Defense office close to the Al-Mosaed Station in Quwaizah district.
“Their appearance before the committee is important because their compensation will be paid only after the committee endorsed their claims,” Brig. Muhammad Al-Qarni, director of the Civil Defense’s Crisis Management Center, said.
Al-Qarni added that the verification of the claims were required because when the flood occurred their claims were not verified because such a move would have delayed the relief operations.
He said the second installment of assistance was given to 3,000 affected families out of 8,278. The committee is waiting for the remaining families to complete the verification procedures and receive their checks, the newspaper reported.
