JEDDAH: The chairwoman of the Family Protection Society and the manager of the Social Protection Home in Jeddah have been removed from their posts following recommendations from a committee investigating financial and administrative corruption. Emir of Makkah Prince Khaled Al-Faisal has now transferred the case files to the administrative investigation branch to complete inquiries into the Protection Home, a shelter housing victims of domestic violence, and which started when authorities were alerted by 19 formal complaints from inmates. Informed sources told Okaz/Saudi Gazette Tuesday that the Emir of Makkah Prince Khaled Al-Faisal had instructed officials to comply with the committee's recommendations regarding the dismissal of the society's chairwoman and the manager of its Protection Home. “The Minister of Social Affairs has appointed Samira Al-Ghamdi to run the society until a new administrative board is formed,” the sources said. An investigation began following accusations of corruption and that a woman was helped to flee from the shelter. The committee accused the chairwoman of writing a letter to a medical center that helped her obtain a fake medical report and prevented her from going to police accompanied by a guard and “helping her lie”. The committee said that the chairwoman obstructed investigations, and also directed accusations at the supervisor of the Protection Home and the society's lawyer. The manager of the Protection Home, meanwhile, denied accusations that she had had drawn up transfer letters for an inmate to visit a medical center, and instead accused the former manager of the offense. The committee, however, stood by its conclusions. “The manager remains evasive and uncooperative in the pursuit of the truth, and has said that it was the chairwoman who ordered not to hand the inmate over to the guard for police investigation,” the committee said. Samira Al-Ghamdi said the Family Protection Society ceased supervising the Protection Home over one year ago. “The society will hold a meeting within a week to select a chairperson and seek approval from the ministry,” she said. The former manager of the Social Protection Home, who resigned following confrontation with the Family Protection Society chairwoman, said that she had been witness to many breaches of regulations on the part of the society's officials, and accused the society's chairwoman of “spying on the home's staff and recording their telephone calls”, as well as “oppressive, domineering and disparaging behavior” towards staff and inmates.
