A senior official at the General Organization for Social Insurance (GOSI) has criticized the Ministry of Labor's Nitaqat Program for allegedly creating fake jobs to meet Saudization quotas and increasing the dependence of Saudi citizens on the government for handouts. Nader Al-Wehaibi, Director General of the General Administration for Planning and Development at GOSI, was quoted Tuesday as saying in a section of the Arabic press, that the program is encouraging young people to become indifferent and lazy. He made the comments while addressing a work forum organized by the Asir Emirate, in collaboration with the Institute of Public Administration at the institute's headquarters in Riyadh on Monday, under the theme “Work: Problems and Solutions”. Citing an example, Al-Wehaibi said the program has seen an increase in Saudis registered in low paid jobs in the private sector to meet Saudization quotas. In addition, some employers have created fake jobs, using the names of citizens, particularly students and people with disabilities. These “workers” are paid a sum of money every month so that their names can be used for official government Nitaqat statistics. This has encouraged young jobseekers to become lazy and deprives genuine jobseekers of employment, argued Al-Wehaibi. “This tricky method enables business owners to achieve the Nitaqat Program's quotas so that they can benefit from the Ministry of Labor's incentives.” This also makes it possible for them to enroll in the social security system without being employed. He said GOSI has exposed several cases of forgery. In one such case, a Saudi businessman added the name of a Saudi woman to his list of employees who work at a fuel station, to increase his Saudization quota and to benefit from GOSI support. He said this type of illegal behavior has increased since the Ministry of Labor introduced the Nitaqat Program. A total of 870,000 Saudis subscribed to the organization in 2010, an increase of 25 percent compared to 2009. The average yearly subscription was six percent. He said 51 percent of new employment has been by big private sector companies. These companies recruit on average 500 Saudi workers each. He said government must introduce legislation to criminalize fake employment because this situation is having a negative social and economic impact on Saudi society. Young people will become increasingly dependent on government and will never look for proper jobs so that they can earn an honest living, he added.
