The Ministry of Islamic Affairs, in a move aimed at proper maintenance of mosques in the Kingdom, has come up with a new tender policy for awarding contracts for the upkeep of mosques that facilitates strict performance audit.

Revealing this, Abdullah Al-Wiheimil, secretary general of the ministry’s technical and administrative affairs, said the ministry will make it mandatory for all maintenance and cleaning companies to strictly adhere to the new conditions. The new contracts will come into effect within a month.

Admitting that the level of cleanliness in Saudi mosques was low over the past few decades, he said the ministry will address this issue with the new contracts, particularly since the budget for cleaning and maintenance had been increased.

The new set of conditions is an offshoot of the ministry’s efforts for increased monitoring and follow-up of maintenance and operation of mosques in various parts of the Kingdom through a directorate. The new directorate will monitor functioning of all companies involved in the maintenance of mosques. It has the authority to suspend any maintenance project in case of delay, dereliction of duty or non-compliance with the provisions of the contract.

Al-Wiheimil said under the cleaning and maintenance plan, the ministry will supply cleaning equipment through contractors and other suppliers, as against the earlier arrangement where the contractor brought in his own equipment, which was invariably of low quality.

The official said the new regulation will have in place a working mechanism for contractors so that their operations can be interdependent and complimentary. Any drop in performance will lead to stoppage of payment.

Maintenance and cleaning operations have been stopped in certain mosques because they didn’t meet the requirements of the Ministry of Finance. These will be re-tendered to raise the level of cleanliness and maintenance, he said, adding that the ministry suffered because of commitment on the part of contractors to ensure satisfactory levels of cleanliness.

Minister of Islamic Affairs Sheikh Abdulaziz Al Al-Sheikh approved cancelation of cleaning, operational and maintenance contracts of national companies involved in a number of mosques in Al-Jouf.

He also approved the cancelation of demolition and building a mosque in Jazan. The contracting company did not proceed with the project implementation because of delay in receiving the contract, and the subsequent price variations from the time the award was given.

Failure to take up the implementation of the project was based on article 25/1 of the executive list of the competition and government purchase system.

He said maintenance projects in about 1,400 mosques in Al-Jouf had been suspended, with each group accounting for an average of 100 mosques.