RIYADH — Abdullah Al-Hajri, director general of communications for the Citizen Account Program, revealed that the program has monitored that a number of beneficiaries managed to obtain support allowance illegally without disclosing their actual income and concealing some basic information. "A number of these beneficiaries own real estate and have financial returns. Six of the program beneficiaries are found to have received support allowance for more than two years, and each of them owns more than 79 properties from which they receive annual financial returns through documented lease contracts that they did not disclose," he said adding that disbursing of support allowance for these beneficiaries has been stopped and punitive measures would be taken against them. Al-Hajri said that these people have violated the program's regulations and the declarations approved at the time of registration. "They have contracts documented in the Ejar platform, and this income was not disclosed during their registration for the Citizen Account Program. Consequently, the program stopped the support allowance for them and started dealing with them in accordance with the program's regulations," he said. The director general noted that the program will apply Article 20 of the law against anyone who deceives for the purpose of obtaining support allowance without any right. According to the article, the support allowance will be suspended for any main beneficiary, who furnishes misleading information, documents or material data, or conceals any material information that must be disclosed in any way to obtain support. Such beneficiaries will be deprived of obtaining the subsidy for a period not exceeding two years, or reclaiming the subsidy he unlawfully obtained in accordance with the necessary statutory procedures for this, or taking both of them, he pointed out. Al-Hajri said that the program is updating and reviewing the beneficiaries' data periodically with the relevant authorities to ensure that they are consistent with what the beneficiary disclosed in the electronic portal to ensure that support is delivered only to eligible families. Al-Hajri announced that the Citizen Account Program has deposited SR3.6 billion as its allocation for the support allowance for around 10.9 million beneficiaries during the month of August. The 57th installment of the support program will be disbursed among the beneficiaries who have completed their application procedures and met the eligibility criteria. This brings the total amounts that have so far been paid by the program to the beneficiaries since its inception to more than SR127 billion, of which SR1.133 billion in compensation for previous payments. He said that 76 percent of the beneficiaries received support allowance of this installment, and the average support for one family amounted to SR1974 while the number of heads of families reached more than 2.1 million constituting 90 percent. The number of dependents reached 8.5 million beneficiaries, while the number of independents who met the eligibility criteria reached more than 233,000 beneficiaries, constituting 10 percent of the total main beneficiaries. Al-Hajri pointed out that the percentage of heads of households reached 90, while the percentage of female heads of households stood at 10. The percentage of independent females was 42 percent while independent males constituted 58 percent. Around 91 percent of the total independents received the full entitlement, which accounted for SR1086 per independent individual. Beneficiaries can access their accounts and disclose income, including all allowances, in addition to the income of dependents and income resulting from real estate returns, activities, commercial and others, via the link ca.gov.sa. The Citizen Account Program is a national program established by the government of Saudi Arabia to protect Saudi families from the direct, indirect and expected impact of various economic reforms through the provision of cash transfers deposited directly in the accounts of the beneficiary citizens on a monthly basis.
