RIYADH: President of the Saudi Red Crescent Authority Prince Faisal bin Abdullah has hit back at criticism against the organization by members of the Shoura Council last week.
He was responding to claims that the Red Crescent’s future development plans were “haphazard” and “randomly” put together.
Prince Faisal said the Shoura Council’s review was ill informed because it did not include input from the ambulance profession.
“I hope the president of the Shoura Council, when discussing any report about any government sector, would have such a representative present. But by throwing criticism without a representative present then (such dialogue) must be discussed under the ceiling of the council and not in newspapers,” he said.
Prince Faisal added the council had been reviewing a report that was published in 2007 and therefore was not reflective of the improvements the authority had made since then.
“When discussing a report three years old, it means I have been making mistakes for the past three years. The developed world discusses the future. And if they discuss the past they do to learn and fix what happened in the past. But not after three years (of its release),” he said.
Meanwhile, he said the Red Crescent had received approval from the Saudi Foreign Ministry to talk to the Red Cross about enabling Saudi families to visit their sons held in Iraqi and Afghan prisons. Twelve families have expressed desire to visit their detained sons. Prince Faisal said the Red Crescent would provide a transport to take families to Baghdad and Kabul.
Prince Faisal was speaking after signing a deal to establish helicopter-landing sites and emergency ambulance centers in 18 industrial cities in the Kingdom yesterday at the Industrial Cities Commission headquarters in Riyadh.
General Director of the Commission of Industrial Cities Tofeeq Al-Rabiah, said the deal would help improve services in industrial cities.
“This new agreement will serve both factory workers in the industrial cities and nearby areas. It will serve more than 3,000 factories in the Kingdom,” he said.
The commission will establish in each city a landing site that will be equipped with emergency ambulance centers. The Red Crescent will equip the centers with medical equipment and operators.
