The administrative court in Hail will consider the case on Sunday, said court sources who asked not to be identified. They added that the court has asked the university to send a representative otherwise it will issue a ruling in their absence.

The businessman, identified as Saad Al-Shammari, claims his bid for the contract was not properly considered. He said he came to the university on one occasion and found that his bid had not been opened, as the bidding process had not started because no one else had submitted a bid.

“I came again to the university after some time and found my envelope open and that it had not been considered by a specialist technical committee, something that is against the law,” he said.

In his complaint, Al-Shammari said the university’s undersecretary referred the issue to the institution’s legal department, which also failed to resolve the matter. “In light of this, I had no other option but to take the matter to the administrative court,” he said.

The sources said the university has one month to appeal the court’s verdict after formally receiving it.

The contract was for cleaning the university’s faculty of science. The Kingdom’s administrative courts are tasked with considering complaints against government departments.