JEDDAH, 3 February 2008 — The General Bureau of Supervision (GBS) has been successful in retaining SR1.2 billion in public coffers during the past five years, Osama Faqeeh, head of the bureau, said yesterday.
“During 2006 alone, the bureau was able to find out violations and mistakes worth more than SR315 million,” he said while presenting its report to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah.
“The bureau has urged the concerned government departments to return the amount to state coffers,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the official as saying.
Faqeeh emphasized the need for establishing units of the bureau at every government department to carry out internal auditing, after the Cabinet approved the proposal three years ago.
He sought the government’s full support for the bureau’s successful functioning. He also called for honoring those civil servants who do their work in an excellent manner while questioning the negligent.
The report included proposals to make the bureau’s activities more effective and Faqeeh requested the king to instruct government departments and state-owned corporations to implement them.
The bureau is authorized to check discrepancies in public spending by various government departments and go through their final accounts and payments.
He commended the king’s efforts to introduce economic, financial and administrative reforms and fight corruption and bureaucracy.
