The Ministry of Finance has suspended the disbursement of five emergency maintenance contractors for boys and girls schools after discovering many irregularities in the contracts signed with them by the maintenance arm of the department of education in Jeddah, which exceeded SR 50 million.

The financial representative at the department of education in Jeddah demanded the dissolution of the contracts amicably through mutual consent, as well as an end to the contractor’s disbursements.

This in turn led to the termination of emergency maintenance in more than 312 schools in Rabigh, Jeddah and Khlais, which provoked the school managers, directors and parents to complain about the deterioration of the interiors of school buildings, in addition to a host of other problems such as frequent power failures, water supply disruption, sewage flooding.

Abdullah Al-Thaqafi, director general of education in Jeddah, told a local newspaper that his administration is currently switching over to a new maintenance system under the name of "Unified Maintenance Contract System." According to Al-Thaqafi, this system is better than earlier systems as it contains foolproof details that will be disseminated via the media in coordination with the department of education’s media branch.

“Five emergency maintenance contractors were suspended due to the discovery of many irregularities by the representative of the Ministry of Finance,” said Al-Thaqafi.

He also clarified that teaching in the schools for girls and boys will not be affected by these latest developments because the authority to perform comprehensive maintenance work has been given to school principals. Furthermore, budgets have been allocated to cover the expenses of all maintenance work in schools.

As for the allegations regarding the transfer of a number of school principals and administrators who filed complaints to the media and the governor about the deteriorating maintenance situation in their schools, Al-Thaqafi denied all these claims.

He added that the maintenance and repair contracts in schools were terminated after an extension period of four months, stressing that the Ministry of Education is keen foremost on the safety of students. As such, the ministry has been developing an alternative plan that will allow the students whose schools are still under maintenance, to be transferred to adjacent evening schools until the maintenance work in their schools finishes.

The operation and maintenance department in the Ministry of Education is responsible for the maintenance of school buildings, as well as conducting periodic examination of public schools. In addition, they are accountable for preparing the terms and conditions of the maintenance contracts signed with specialized contractors, and in charge of monitoring their performance.