A female Shoura Council member has criticized the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nazaha) for its failure to contain growing corrupt practices in the Kingdom and said it has lost the confidence of citizens.

Zainab Abutaleb, vice chairperson of the media committee at the council, said the body’s chief Mohammed Al-Sharief should have gone through citizens’ comments on Nazaha before highlighting its achievements at the Shoura Council on Monday.

“The national strategy to protect fairness and combat corruption, which is Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah’s most important initiative, should be the criteria for establishing transparency and social injustice in the Kingdom,” she said.

Saudis have expressed their disappointment in Nazaha on social media, she said, citing some of their comments.

“Corruption and corrupt officials are everywhere, but nobody is there to protect you,” reads one comment. “We want to see your work on the ground,” reads another.

Other comments include “It seems corruption is more powerful than Nazaha” and “We hear only talk and corruption is increasing by the day.”

According to Abutaleb, winning the confidence of citizens is the best way for Nazaha to succeed.

She said if Al-Sharief had understood Nazaha’s position and had fathomed the powers the king had given to the organi- zation, he would not have told the Shoura that some govern- ment officials were ignoring its directives.

Addressing the Shoura, Al-Sharief said a new law would be soon enacted to protect public funds. He also said that measures would be taken against corrupt contractors. “Nazaha does not have the powers to issue punish- ments and sanctions or conduct investigations.”

“The issue of non-responsive- ness to the commission was brought to the attention of King Abdullah. Four royal decrees were issued consecutively stress- ing the fact that all concerned bodies should cooperate with the

commission, and respond to its queries.”

Later speaking to Al-Arabiya news channel, Al-Sharief said he would request the king’s permis- sion to publish the names of gov- ernment departments that do not cooperate. The Shoura members had asked him to disclose their names. According to a Nazaha report, the majority of corruption cases were in the health, munici- pality, education, water & electric- ity and transport sectors.

Many citizens have praised Abutaleb for showing the courage to criticize Nazaha. Fuad Kawther, an engineer, said Nazaha has utterly failed to fight corruption. “We hear announcement of mas- sive budgets every year but do not see its reflection on the lives of citizens,” he told Arab News. The lion’s share of the budget is spent on projects that do not have any direct impact on citizens’ welfare.

He urged the government to increase Nazaha’s powers to take on corrupt departments and offi- cials.

“At present, we see Nazaha publishing some reports in the press. We don’t see any action against corruption. Although Nazaha is an independent body, we consider it as another govern- ment department. It should be given all the powers to confront corrupt officials without fear.”

Some Saudi bloggers said the Shoura Council has no right to criticize Nazaha because it is equally bad and had failed to address citizens’ issues. “The Shoura and Nazaha are same. If the Shoura had done its job well, Nazaha’s mission would have been much easier,” one Saudi wrote. “If Nazaha is given the power to pun- ish the corrupt, it would have a tremendous impact on the ground,” another said.