Minister issues orders penalizing erring Haj services companies

A number of domestic Haj service-providing companies have been punished for violating regulations during the last pilgrimage season.
Haj Minster Bandar Hajjar issued 152 orders penalizing the companies at a meeting of a committee examining violations in the provision of domestic Haj services.
The penalized companies include both licensed and unlicensed companies.
The committee fined 34 licensed companied with fines ranging between SR10,000 and SR100,000 while eight have been ordered to compensate pilgrims. The orders also included the deportation of six expatriate employees of unlicensed companies.
Hajjar said after the meeting: “One-hundred-and-six orders have been issued against licensed domestic service-providing companies following complaints from pilgrims and observations of the ministry’s monitoring officials.”
Seven of the companies ordered to pay damages will have to compensate between 10 to 20 percent of the fees pilgrims paid. The other company will have to pay half.
The minister added 46 orders were issued against unlicensed companies.
Such companies were also fined between SR10,000 and SR100,000. The committee has postponed decisions in 20 cases while it waits for more evidence and information.
The minister commended the efforts of the Control and Investigation Board and the committee looking into the violations, comprising officials of the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Ministry of Haj.
The Haj Ministry’s monitoring committees were also active in discovering violations in Haj services, he said.
The committee to look into violations was set up in line with a royal decree on domestic pilgrim service regulations issued six years ago.