A water provider has lodged a complaint against an official of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the Hai'a, for allegedly failing to pay water bills from allocated funds. The water provider alleged that the official, who serves as the head of a Hai'a branch office in a Qassim town, used the funds for his personal use instead of paying him for overdue bills. The water provider also alleged that the official forged his signature on receipts of payments in an apparent attempt to mislead the Hai'a head office in Qassim that he was paying the water bills. The Hai'a Office in the Qassim region has started an investigation into the matter, a Hai'a source confirmed. The investigation will try to establish the connection, if any, between the signed receipts and actual payments made to the provider, the source added. The provider said that he never signed any receipts or received any payments for over four months. “Every time I visited the office for payment, the head told me there were no funds available,” he said. But when the provider went to the main office, they told him that funds allocated for water were paid monthly to the branch office. The main office showed the provider receipts of payments bearing his signature. “This never happened,” the provider said.
