THE Ministry of Education has asked male and female principals of schools throughout the Kingdom to cooperate fully with representatives of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nazaha), enabling them to carry out their duties and providing them with all the documents they might need. It is no big deal whether this call was made on the ministry's own initiative or the commission's. The important question is: What signs of corruption does the commission expect to find in schools? If the issue is related to the learning process, I can safely say that what the educationalists have failed to discover will not be easily found by the commission. If the corruption the commission will be looking for relates to financial violations, the ministry has special organs responsible for checking the financial performance of schools, the projects under implementation and controlling the transfers of male and female teachers. The ministry's call to school principals to cooperate with the commission may not be more than a simple attempt to show its enthusiasm for the work of the commission and its keenness to cooperate with it. This enthusiasm is meaningless if the ministry does not know that there are a large number of departments and establishments that the commission needs to purge of corruption. These establishments do not include schools, at least at present. This call will distract the commission and preoccupy it with petty matters. It reminds me of the audited accounts that break down the amounts of money into millions, thousands and hundreds of riyals, not forgetting to add a few halalas. The inclusion of the halalas is not meant to show the accuracy of the auditors but rather to confuse the client and make him blindly trust the audited accounts. The real danger lies in the commission preoccupying itself with small details and in trying to gain satisfaction with such empty enthusiasm for its work. The citizen is still waiting to see the result of the work of the commission, which has been empowered with sufficient authority.
