The Shoura Council approved on Monday a cost of living allowance for Saudi state employees abroad, which amounts to a total of five percent of an employee's salary. In 2008, the Council of Ministers approved a five percent annual salary increase for Saudi government employees for three years to fight the growing cost of living in the Kingdom. As the annual increase has taken its third and final round with the beginning of this year, the government deposited on Monday the first salary of the new Hijra year with a total increase of 15 percent. According to available statistics, the government has allocated SR8.06 billion ($2.1 billion) to cover the third incremental increase of its employees in 2010, taking the total amount of government employees to SR185 billion ($49.4 billion). The average of monthly basic salaries of government employees range between SR2,530 and SR20,625, according to the payment scale of grades 1 through 15. At its 68th ordinary session on Monday, presided over by its Speaker Dr. Abdullah Bin Muhammad Bin Ibrahim Aal Al-Sheikh, the Shoura Council called on government departments to solve the problem of halting promotions which eventually freezes an employee's salary after spending a number of years in one grade. Besides the 15 percent increase ordered by the Cabinet, the government employees receive a small annual bonus, but it stops if the employee is not promoted. The Shoura Council also approved the report of the Administrative Affairs and Human Resources Committee on the annual reports of the Civil Service Ministry for the fiscal years 2006-07 and 2007-08. The Council called for all the ministry's annual reports to be referred to it. It also wants a record of any violations recorded under the Civil Service rules and regulations by government authorities; and the measures taken to deal with any transgressions. The Shoura Council also called on the ministry to coordinate its work with various government agencies to fill vacant positions in the civil service. The Shoura Council has voted for new three draft regulations bills on Shariah pleading procedures before Shariah courts and the Board of Grievances and penal procedures. The new regulations bills were presented by the Islamic and Judicial Affairs and Human Rights Committee last Sunday. For the three drafts to be passed into law, they would be referred to King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, according to the Shoura Council regulation. The Shoura Council session also had a majority vote in favor of an additional recommendation presented by Shoura member Dr. Saud Al-Sibei. This was the recommendation that a lawyer be appointed to plead for a defendant in case he or she is unable to afford legal representation. In such cases, the lawyer's fee would be paid from a financial allocation to be added to the budget of the Ministry of Justice. Dr. Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, Secretary General of the Council, said in a statement after the meeting, that the Council agreed by a majority vote to keep in force its previous decision to form an ad hoc committee to study the government's land control system. This was despite a protest from the Water, Utilities and Public Services Committee against the formation of the committee.
