They said they were even more astonished after the ministry swiftly denied the allegations instead of investigating them.

In the YouTube clip, a male Saudi graduate who spent the last five years looking for work in the public sector shows the data of graduates who have been appointed in various government jobs.

It appears that most of them are from the same tribe or region. He cites the example of five brothers with extremely similar qualifications and work experience and said this was enough evidence of favoritism in the ministry.

Abdullah Al-Qahtani, who saw the clip, is a university graduate with an excellent rating in accountancy and finance as well as diplomas in English language and computing. He also has three years experience working for a commercial bank.

“I am astonished that the ministry would easily deny these accusations. Instead, the ministry should have conducted an in-depth investigation to make sure that the graduates it has employed were really qualified and suitable for these jobs,” he said.

Abdullah Al-Mousimi, an Arabic language graduate from Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah, has been looking for a government job for the past six years.

“I had to take a teaching job at a private school paying SR2,500 per month, which is not enough to feed my family,” he said.

He added that instead of investigating the accusations, the ministry has admitted guilt through its meager denial.

“No graduate would believe the denial when the evidence is there,” he said.

Faiz Al-Nimari, another unemployed graduate, called on the General Auditing Bureau to investigate the accusations against the ministry and to ensure that the employees mentioned in the YouTube clip were appointed on their merit, not their connections.

“This incident should not go away just like that. The ministry’s employees must be carefully vetted. It is not possible that five brothers would have the same qualifications unless they were quintuplets,” he said.

In its denial of the accusations, the ministry said merit and equal opportunities were the criteria for employing people in government positions.

“There are no rules preventing brothers from having the same qualifications or from applying for the same jobs,” a statement from the ministry added.

The video clip was recently removed from YouTube.