Othaimeen, Minister of Social Affairs, has said that all charities in the Kingdom are subject to “strict monitoring” by the authorities with “certified legal accountants at all charitable societies and organizations across the country”. “Accounts are controlled, and we have neither heard of nor received anything regarding charitable societies or organizations in the Kingdom and licensed by the state, and this is something of which we are proud,” Al-Othaimeen said. The minister made the remarks in a press statement following the launch in Riyadh earlier this week of the Financial Sustainability Fund, set up by the Solaiman Bin Abdul Aziz Al-Rajih Charity Foundation. The Financial Sustainability Fund, Al-Othaimeen said, would apply “all the measures on charities that are struggling to or have failed to return loans they have acquired from the fund”. The minister added that the fund should be regarded as a charity in order for the public to “understand that it is a charitable endowment and so that they don't rush to it in the belief that it is a fund for contributions to individuals”.
