JEDDAH: A contractor has been paid SR22 million of a SR34-million computer-system project at King Khaled Eye Hospital in Riyadh, even though an assessment report found that “the project has failed and the contractor has failed to carry out the tasks required from it”. The report on the project to update and operate the hospital's computer system was issued by King Saud University's Health Information Department and a security technology company. The General Auditing Bureau (GAB) said the contractor has already received about SR22 million of the contract's value. Meanwhile, the GAB said that its investigations into the embezzlement of nearly SR11 million at the hospital showed the payroll manager had received the salaries of a number of former employees for three years. “The salaries were deposited in the manager's bank account for three years. This is proved by material evidence,” the GAB said. The GAB added that it had discovered the embezzlement in the hospital and launched an investigation more than a month before the hospital's management started its own probe. The management claimed it had discovered the wrongdoing before the GAB's auditors arrived. However, the GAB said that the management did not report the fraud as stipulated by the GAB's 17th Article when it made this discovery.
