Saudi Arabia's anti-corruption agency on Monday announced the arrests of government and private sector officials in 11 cases involving bribes or theft totalling about 17 million riyals ($4.4 million).
In one case, a resident working as a project manager at a company affiliated with the Public Investment Fund, the kingdom's sovereign wealth fund, was arrested for taking a bribe of 2.175 million riyals, the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) said.
Two Saudi citizens and another resident serving as chief executive of a commercial entity were arrested for paying the bribe in exchange for the award of a contract to renovate a company-owned site and subcontracting work on the project.
In another case, a health affairs employee was arrested while receiving 500,000 riyals in exchange for enabling the qualification and awarding of two projects worth a combined 384.3 million riyals to a commercial entity.
Nazaha said investigations revealed that the total agreed bribe amounted to 10 million riyals, of which the employee had already received 4.5 million from the entity’s chief executive, who was detained.
The employee distributed the funds to the director of engineering affairs, his assistant, and the head of the bid review committee, all of whom were arrested, it said.
Separately, authorities arrested a retired non-commissioned officer for embezzling 2.16 million riyals seized in criminal cases during his service at a police station.
A civil defence non-commissioned officer was arrested for soliciting bribes from commercial entities in exchange for overlooking safety breaches.
A soldier posted at a police station and two Saudi civilians were detained for stealing 1.4 million riyals from a non-Saudi resident.
Authorities also arrested three Civil Status Authority employees who received 850,000 riyals in instalments from a Saudi citizen, who was also detained, in exchange for illegally registering births and issuing national identity cards.
Three municipal employees were arrested for taking bribes to enable licensing procedures.
Nazaha said it also detained an employee at the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture and a resident for taking bribes for falsifying paperwork to show eligibility for livestock support.
An employee at a regional development authority was arrested for hiring his wife at companies contracted by his employer, where she received a salary without attending work.
The authority said it would “continue to monitor and pursue anyone who abuses public office or public funds, even after leaving their position”, noting that financial and administrative corruption crimes do not expire under Saudi law.
