Citizens here are accusing local charities of not distributing the social aid ordered earlier this year by King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, Al-Yaum newspaper reported Wednesday. They claimed that they are still receiving their normal payments from the charities in the region. Ink on paper Muhammad Al-Sha'eri, a beneficiary of local charities, said King Abdullah had increased their payments by 50 percent. The King provides these charities with SR450 million a year. “We thought that the aid ordered by the King will increase the size of the financial aid given by these societies. We have been waiting for several months, since the day the King issued the Royal Orders, but everything is still ink on paper.” He admitted, however, that families have received some benefits, in particular the Royal Order that aid be given to 15 family members, instead of eight members. A total of SR2 billion was provided by government for this. Huge amount Othman Al-Asiri, another beneficiary, said charities registered with the Ministry of Social Affairs are given SR100 million annually, including SR476 million for various charitable services such as helping students with their studies and for buying school bags and clothing. He said this is a huge amount of money which has to be monitored by officials from the Ministry of Social Affairs. “Some societies have carried out the Royal Decree but there are others that are hiding it from beneficiaries.” He claimed that some charity officials are ignoring complaints from citizens and are only interested in self-promotion. Mashooh Al-Hoshan, Director General of the Charitable Societies at the Ministry of Social Affairs, said that all the amounts and allocations ordered by the King, estimated to be around SR467 million, have been handed over to the 620 private societies, which are being supervised by the ministry all over the Kingdom. He stressed that the ministry is not authorized to interfere with the way the charities distribute the aid. He said that the Ministry of Finance provides these societies with annual aid of six percent of the budget. In addition, businessmen also contribute about SR2 billion yearly.
