Abdu Khal Okaz newspaper We are being subjected to fraudulent means in broad daylight. This is a haunting issue that we journalists are dealing with. At the same time, we are unmindful of a number of aspects in fighting fraud and standing firm in facing it with a determination to stamp it out. Most often, I feel confused about existing reality. The reason for this feeling is that we have government agencies that are supposed to monitor all that is going on around us. What prompted me to say this is the disclosure of the Saudi Council of Engineers that there are 15000 foreigners working as engineers in the Kingdom. This brings to memory countless cases of holders of bogus medical certificates who caused us harm through medical errors and improper diagnosis. This also leads us to recall about holders of forged university certificates who distort minds of students because they did not acquire the required knowledge. It also reminds us of the number of foreigners who come to the country with forged certificates as experts and then issue edicts in minute matters that necessarily lead to deviation in results. It also leads us to remember about the number of technicians in various fields who penetrated the labor market, and damaged our equipment, houses and vehicles. They were not qualified but they had the technical degrees that allowed them to tamper with whatever they wanted! In this context, we also remember the huge numbers of foreigners who are holders of certificates in various fields while the reality is that they don't know anything about these professions. If we want to follow this line of fraud, we can see a series of wide variety of fraudulent means. There are counterfeit and fake goods such as electrical and plumbing materials, spare parts and medical supplies. We can see instances of fraud in issuing medical certificates for the workers. We can also see issuing medical certificates to those infected with diseases to the effect that they are free from diseases and they transmit us the disease while they work. There are dozens of trades where fraud occurs in one way or the other, and whose outcome reflects on our social situation. As we are living in the largest workshop at the global level, high grade of skills are essential to implement enormous number of projects at this workshop. If the skills are below par, they would adversely reflect on the outcome. Hence, we need a permanent slogan to combat fraud, which is a word containing a union of everything we are exposed to, whether they are in the higher grade professions or menial jobs. How and when can we get rid of this slow poison from our social life before it destroys us?
