Some expat readers are keen to know why they weren’t included in the two salary bonus. Well, if you are a non-Saudi government contract employee and you did not benefit from this generous Royal Decree, that’s because: a. expats who work for the government get good housing allowance or are offered good accommodation in various locations, and b. they get annual international air tickets.
So, what is the situation for Saudis? Saudi government employees do not get housing allowance (for example, teachers at the Ministry of Education) and are never offered accommodation. Moreover, Saudi government employees never get free air tickets to local destinations let alone international ones!
Thus, King Salman’s generous Royal Decree could have also applied to non-Saudis, who work for the government, if they did not enjoy all or most of these wonderful benefits (accommodation, housing allowance, air tickets, health insurance, etc.) So, the $32 billion government stipend support given to the chosen Saudi citizens has its justification. Perhaps that is why it should be called a ‘national decree’ in the first place.
• Director of Media, King Saud bin Abdulaziz university for health sciences. Twitter: @abdullahsayel
