Corruption seeps deep into the veins of Saudi society, causing losses amounting to more than SR55 billion a year to the state. Several economic experts and academics underlined the need for taking stringent and drastic steps to root out corruption and the measures they suggested include establishing special courts to try those accused of corruption and setting up of charitable societies and consultancy centers to address this menace, according to a report in Alsharq Arabic newspaper. Recently, there were reports about an employee in the Department of Education in Riyadh who embezzled more than SR150 million. Reacting to the report, Prince Khaled Bin Abdullah, head of the committee for the affairs of education at the Shoura Council, said that the committee has no authority to discuss corruption that might have occurred in the Ministry of Education. “Holding the ministry accountable for the alleged embezzlement is not in the jurisdiction of the committee. It is the ministry that must tackle such issues,” he said. Noted economic expert Fadl Albuainain compared corruption in a society to cancer in a human body. “If the deadly disease was diagnosed and treated in the initial stage, there is every possibility for the person to be cured. If there is a failure in doing so, it will spread to other parts of the body and then the treatment will be very difficult and there is little chance for recovery. Same thing applies to corruption,” he said. Describing the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nazaha) as a toothless lion, Albuainain said Nazaha had miserably failed in curbing corruption. “The anti-graft body is not playing an effective role in fighting corruption that takes place at ministries and government departments. There are ‘first-grade' corrupt officials at some of these departments.” The expert attributed Nazaha's weakness to the lack of sufficient power to probe corruption and hold corrupt officials accountable. It mainly follows up corruption cases pertaining to government projects. He described the Kingdom's government projects as “those involving higher costs, longest period of implementation and the lowest quality in the Gulf region.” Albuainain noted that most countries boast of having effective bodies to combat all forms of corruption. The bodies, which enjoy all executive powers and full freedom to exercise them, do not fall under any government control. “These bodies have powers over all ministries as well as government departments and agencies. Whenever the anti-graft body is stronger and powerful, it can serve the broader economic interests of the country.” According to international estimates, corruption consumes about five percent of the gross national product (GDP) of countries. This means that the world incurs losses amounting to more than $1 trillion due to corruption every year. The figure of losses is about $350 billion in the Arab world, of which the Kingdom's stake is SR55 billion, he said. Albuainain noted that there are more chances for corruption and extravagance with the huge budgeted allocation of funds for various government departments and development projects. “Those who can't handle proper management of public wealth, they are not at all entitled to be at the helm of ministries or departments. Even though they did not directly engage in stealing or embezzlement, they shall be considered as corrupt because corruption does not mean involvement in direct stealing,” he said. Echoing the same view, economic analyst Muhammad Al-Qahtani called for a more efficient role for Nazaha in combating corruption. He described the Nazaha chief as a “frustrated man” and said ministries are not responding to him properly and warned that phenomenon of corruption would spread fast. “In some countries, the rate of corruption began from 0.5 percent and now it soared to 60 percent.” Agreeing with their viewpoints, prominent lawyer and legal consultant Ahmed Al-Rashid said that the role of Nazaha was not instrumental in bringing down the volume of corruption in the Kingdom. “The anti-graft body's role was not evident significantly even two years after it came into being. The commission still lacks sufficient staff,” he said while calling for giving Nazaha more powers to make it an effective anti-graft body. Al-Rashid also called for setting up a special court to examine petitions on financial malpractices. “At present, citizens do not have an open way to lodge any complaints with the commission. First of all, the citizen has to furnish a signed undertaking that his statement was true, in addition to producing evidence supporting his complaint,” he said while noting that such conditions would discourage citizens from approaching the commission with complaints. Abdul Aziz Al-Dakheel, associate professor of community service at King Saud University, called for protecting society from corruption or at least minimize its impact through the setting up of consultancy and community clinics at all departments and firms in the government and private sectors in order to tackle the problems of employees. “Almost all developed countries are following this method as a way to improve productivity and maintain work ethics besides preventing unethical practices. There should be a system under which all government employees shall sign a charter of ethics that will prevent them from engaging in embezzlement, theft, brokerage and other corrupt practices.” Dr. Abdullah Al-Hariri, professor of clinical psychology, said corruption was a type of mental disorder. “Some employees might have such disorders since their childhood and it could be evident in their financial dealings. Parents have a great role to correct these undesirable behavioral problems in their children,” he said. Al-Hariri called for setting up civil societies to combat corruption. Such societies have three major levels of activities – governmental, private and charitable. “Setting up of a charitable society with the mission to fight corruption, together with government and private agencies, is significant in our anti-corruption drive,” he added. — SG
