JEDDAH: The Court of Grievances has fined officials convicted of taking bribes a total of SR2.31 million. It also fined people involved in forgery a total of SR1.52 million during a three-month period this year.
Abdul Aziz Al-Qaeeb, director of the research department at the Control and Investigation Bureau (CIB), said 43 officials were fined a total of SR145,500 for exploiting their influence and 14 officials SR94,730 in total for misusing their power.
He said the bureau had transferred 748 cases to the Court of Grievances during the period of June 24-Sept. 20 this year.
“The Administrative Court at the Court of Grievances has already handed out punishments to the culprits including imprisonment and fines,” he said, adding that there were 573 cases related to forgery, 73 cases of bribe-taking, 14 cases relating to the misuse of authority and 43 of exploitation of influence.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has reiterated that the government would not tolerate administrative corruption. Under Saudi law, government officials convicted of accepting bribes can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined SR500,000.
Following the recent flooding in Jeddah, King Abdullah set up a high-level committee to investigate the reasons for the calamity and warned that those responsible of neglecting their role in the tragedy would be held accountable.
“We cannot ignore the fact that there were mistakes and failures on the part of some departments and it is our duty to identify those responsible and take action against them,” the king said in a statement after the floods.
In the year 2007, the CIB detected 6,821 cases of corruption, forgery, embezzlement and abuse of power in the civil service. According to the director of the Department of Research and Information in Dammam, Abdulaziz Al-Kaib, most of the cases were related to fraud.
