Makkah land owners wait for SR30 billion in compensation
Chairman of the Endowments Committee at the Makkah Chamber of Commerce Sharif Aladiin Shaker Al-Ghalib said that the committee owes billions of riyals in reimbursements to owners of appropriated lands for expansion projects in the holy city.
Al-Ghalib said that payments worth an estimated SR30 billion are yet to be made to the owners of lands which were expropriated for expansion projects. He added that the amount includes SR1.8 billion for an endowment expropriated about seven years ago.
Al- Ghalib attributed the delay to complicated bureaucratic procedures, the lack of a clear system for the management of endowments, as well as the failure to purchase substitutes for expropriated endowments to benefit the public.
He said these factors have caused the beneficiaries to lose income, as well as lost opportunities to benefit from their investments.
He called for the need to facilitate procedures for the disbursement of entitlements of endowments, adding that the committee is interested in acting on the issue of private and public endowments in Makkah and will work to identify and provide solutions.
He also called for the development of special laws and regulations for endowments including the establishment of special endowment courts.
The Endowments Committee has also invited its members to an emergency meeting at the Makkah Chamber of Chamber of Commerce, in the presence of President Maher bin Saleh Jamal, to discuss the ongoing obstacles.
“The committee will invite all civil endowments in Makkah to participate in the discussion for developing the endowments sector in Makkah,” said Al-Ghalib. He said that the committee will also work on creating a database of endowments through the office of an adviser in order to process all data and allow for easy communication between the authorities concerned.