In an appearance on the TV interview program, Khaliija, the president of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nazaha), Muhammad Al-Sharif, tried to educate viewers about the purview of his agency.

Seeking to dispel any misunderstanding regarding a recent case in which HIV-contaminated blood was mistakenly transferred to a 12-year-old girl, Al-Sharif explained that it is a matter for the courts to decide and that Nazaha does not have the authority to “name and shame” corrupt officials such as those who may be responsible for the tainted blood transfusion.

Nevertheless, Al-Sharif said, Nazaha does support implementing “name and shame” as a penalty to be applied by the courts in clear-cut cases of corruption.

Nazaha’s jurisdiction covers all government agencies and departments, including ministries and Saudi Aramco. But he said that only about half of the complaints submitted to the Commission turn out to have any validity.

“Nobody can deny that there is corruption in Saudi Arabia,” he said, “but the size of it is unknown.”

As part of a large-scale assault on corruption, Al-Sharif said that Nazaha has submitted proposal to the King designed to protect public funds and that graduate programs focused on fighting corruption are being created. Additionally, scholarship students are being sent overseas to learn anti-corruption techniques, especially in Austria where the International Anti-Corruption Academy is located.