WHEN an issue requires a surprise visit by the Minister of Labor and Social Development to the Comprehensive Rehabilitation Center for men in Al-Kharj to reveal center's mismanagement and the deteriorating services being provided to the occupants, it is really a cause of immense worry. It is a solid evidence of the absence of supervisory parameters and the weakness of the institutional work. Was it that the center's mismanagement just waiting for a surprise visit by the minister? Does it mean that the conditions of the ministry's other rehabilitation centers for the disabled and the orphans are also waiting for a sudden visit of the minister? The ministry should have created and applied firm supervisory mechanisms and parameters to ensure the good performance of the staff in all these centers and to ensure the standard services being provided to the people of special needs and the orphans. The ministry should have done this a long time ago especially after the spread of video clips on social media on bad treatment and physical violence against the the center's occupants. Has the revealing of the mistakes, violations and substandard services been tied up only to the accidental video clips and the minister's sudden visit instead of the continuous supervisory procedures which will ensure the level of services and prevent violations? While appreciating the minister's surprise visit to the center, I strongly believe that the individual initiatives will continue to have limited effect. In the absence of an institutional work which is governed by rules and regulations we will remain in the dark to what is going on in the rehabilitation centers. In this case, the revealing of mistakes and and services will be left only to the accidental video films and the surprise visits of senior officials.
