The Saudi Council of Engineers has revealed that the Saudi judiciary receives more than 4,000 lawsuits related to stalled engineering projects.

It pointed out that it would sign a cooperation agreement with the Ministry of Justice to assign qualified engineers to provide their technical opinion regarding cases involving tripped construction projects and to help the judiciary rule in cases with an engineering dimension.

They, however, acknowledged that the list of the engineering cadre that has been approved is still kept in the drawers of the Ministry of Civil Service, adding that there is a connection between corruption and weak government engineering cadre.

The council's secretary general, Ghazi Al-Abbasi, said more than 4,000 lawsuits are being reviewed every year by the Saudi judiciary. These cases mainly involve stalled engineering projects. Opinion of expert engineers are used to rule in these cases.

Al-Abbasi, who is also the secretary general for Engineering Organizations in the Islamic countries, said the council will sign during the next two weeks a memorandum with the Ministry of Justice to seek the assistance of the council's engineers, by nominating an accredited engineer to give their technical opinion in such cases, noting that there are 500 Saudi engineers out of 30,000 who are eligible for litigation.

He pointed out that Saudi engineers make up around 20 percent of the total number of engineers working in the Kingdom, which stands at nearly 170,000.

"We can't nationalize activities in a short time. Saudi engineers are still few in number, which means they need a stipend, similar to one paid to university professors," he said.