Saudi Arabia cracks down on corruption

A weary public accustomed to blatant stealing by public officials over the past decades welcomes the strict actions

Back in the heyday when the region was awash with petrodollars and Saudi Arabia found itself earning more cash than it could spend, one of the unfortunate by-products of such a bounty was the rapid rise of corruption in a section of the public sector with many department heads getting fat over the years at the expense of the public.

Following the initial boom of development in the 80s, things came to a gradual standstill as money dried up and many of the projects remained unfinished. A good example is the sewage and water delivery networks which still remain unfinished in portions of the major cities. The money was there, the government had clearly budgeted and allocated its expenditure, but where it ended up was anywhere except towards its designed goal.

During late King Abdullah’s reign a royal decree was issued in March 2011 for the formation of a national commission (NACC) to combat corruption. This body was set up to deal with all forms of financial and administrative graft, and also promote the principle of transparency.

Stealing public funds

In the following years, there were some large-scale arrests of public figures who had been stealing public funds, but corruption didn’t stop altogether. In 2017, King Salman ordered the creation of a powerful new anticorruption committee, headed by the Crown Prince, giving the anticorruption committee the “right to investigate, arrest, ban from travel, or freeze the assets of anyone it deems corrupt”. King Salman also ordered protection for financial and corporate whistle-blowers as part of an anti-corruption drive in the country.

All this sat well with a weary public accustomed to blatant stealing by public officials over the past decades. As arrests were announced, there was no general sympathy for the plight of those rounded up as almost all felt that they had it coming. Saudi Arabia improved on the Global Corruption Index, moving up several places.

King Abdulaziz University episode

People sat up and took notice a few days ago when it was announced that King Salman had sacked the President of King Abdulaziz University (KAU), Dr Abdurrahman Al Youbi, over corruption charges, ordering his arrest and turning him over to investigation authorities. The king’s order said that the decision was based on a report submitted by the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) against Al Youbi.

It seems that Dr Al Youbi was exploiting his position as the head of one of the kingdom’s largest government-funded universities to enrich himself and close relatives. One of the lessons to be learned from this latest case of gross embezzlement of public funds is the need to increase financial vigilance in the public sector and not allow culprits to walk away. Such is the intent of the King and the Crown Prince and the people are with them all the way.