Saudi Arabia: Dozens of government employees have been involved in a million-dollar corruption case

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The Control and Anti-Corruption Authority in Saudi Arabia (Nazaha) revealed on Monday, that dozens of government employees have been involved in a million-dollar corruption case, among other cases that have been revealed as part of Riyadh's efforts to combat corruption in the country.

The government agency said in a statement that it had initiated a number of criminal cases during the past period, including the involvement of 53 employees in ministries and government agencies, teachers at a university, and 16 employees of a company specialized in medical waste treatment, in a corruption case aimed at non-application of standard provisions and regulations and bypassing and condoning For violations of the company.

Integrity added that those employees received cash amounts estimated at millions of riyals, tickets, hotel reservations, cars for personal use, and the employment of their first-degree relatives with the company, in exchange for ignoring its violations.

Government explained that 24 employees among those involved in the case belong to the Ministry of Health, 14 to the Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs, and 15 to the Public Authority of Meteorology and Environmental Protection, in addition to teachers who are members of the teaching staff of a university.

The commission revealed a second case in which a former appeals judge was arrested for obtaining during his tenure a luxury vehicle in exchange for issuing an irregular verdict, as well as revoking three judgments issued against one of the accused and releasing him, as it has been proven that the judge paid part of the value of a property in cash whose source has not been proven.

In a third case, an employee in a bank, in cooperation with the Saudi Central Bank, was arrested for obtaining about 130,000 riyals from citizens in exchange for raising financing requests with incorrect documents.

Saudi Arabia established the Anti-Corruption Commission in 2011, and granted it the powers to detect corruption in all government institutions, before gaining significant official support in the past few years, in which Riyadh increased its steps to combat corruption in conjunction with the start of the gigantic government change project Vision 2030.

In late 2017, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman led a widespread campaign against corruption, under which dozens of princes, ministers, businessmen and senior government officials were suspended, amid global follow-up to the move, which ended with the recovery of large sums of money estimated at billions of riyals to the public treasury.