MAKKAH: A government committee has accused the owner of the company that has the contract for cleaning the city of Makkah of trafficking in visas and recommended that the man be fined more than SR21 million for selling visas granted to the company to recruit cleaning workers during the last Haj season. Investigations showed the contractor sold 2,120 visas – out of 4,000 he received – to doctors, engineers and academics who arrived in Madina and were transported by buses provided by the contractor to Makkah, where he had them accommodated in wedding halls he rented for that purpose. Everything was going as the contractor planned until one of the bus drivers got lost in Makkah and headed for Mina, where he was received at the Holy Site by Haj government authorities, officials said. Officials had observed that the level of cleanliness was noticeably low and an investigation was launched as soon as the season ended, according to the committee, which will submit its report next week to the Makkah Emir's Office. The committee's members represented the Emir's Office, the Mayor's Office, Passports Department, Control and Investigation Board, Makkah Labor Office and the Administrative Investigation Department.
