Saudi Arabia clamps down on corruption

The anti-corruption authority identified 105 cases, including a doctor who admitted a woman without Covid-19 to a quarantine facility to be with family members

Saudi Arabia's control and anti-corruption authority has launched a major campaign to clamp down on graft, identifying 105 cases that included a doctor who admitted a woman without Covid-19 to a quarantine facility to be with family members.

The doctor was arrested for having violated the pandemic preventive systems for allowing the women to enter the facility, and for then smuggling her family home before they had fully recovered from the virus.

A businessman who owns a hospital in an unspecified governorate was also arrested for fraud after what Saudi Press Agency called "providing unwarranted Covid-19 relief assistance amounting to 1.5 million riyals to workers in the private sector".

A brigadier general in the police was arrested for exploiting his influence by using official vehicle to facilitate the passage of a private vehicle through security checkpoints during the curfew.

Another police officer was arrested for requesting a bribe from foreign residents to clear their curfew violations.

In other financially-driven crimes, three employees of the Saudi Electricity Company were arrested on charges of obtaining financial bribes amounting to 535,000 euros from a French company to help with money laundering. One of them also got a bribe of 800,000 riyals from suppliers inside the kingdom in exchange for awarding supply contracts in their favour from the Saudi Electricity Company.

An employee from the Ministry of Education was arrested for duping citizens into believing he could help them get jobs in return for bribes.

The head of the criminal investigation unit in one of the police departments, with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, was arrested for exploiting his position by releasing four migrants and stopping an order to search them in exchange for obtaining smart phone devices as a bribe.

Updated: July 07, 2020, 11:17 AM