Months ago, Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman announced a broad campaign to fight corruption that people of the entire Arab region wished for.
Specialists denounced this step as it contradicts MBS’s actions as with royal orders and unilateral sovereign decisions, hundreds of millions of dollars are spent, in contravention of the principle of fighting corruption, denying the existence of the people, or legislative and popular oversight.
Yahya Asiri, Secretary-General of Saudi National Gathering Party, said that fighting corruption is not originally an individual decision, but rather an approach that all institutions of the state must follow through effective institutions, an independent judiciary that does not follow orders, and under the observation of the people, the media, and civil institutions. All of this is done in an atmosphere of freedom.
Asiri said: “Fighting corruption is not a royal decision, and it should not be, especially if the person who issues those orders is famous for corruption, according to tangible facts.”
Regarding those who were tried previously on corruption charges, Asiri said: “These are the same people who were appointed before through the principle of royal trust, which they claimed to apply to the sincere ones, and today they are holding them accountable for corruption charges in the billions”, and he wondered why would not this appointment be under the control of the people?
He condemned the Saudi regime, saying: Why do they want us to live on our land without being able to decide or monitor, while they appoint their fans then dismiss them, without the people knowing what is happening and what is going on at the time of appointment and the time of dismissal.
It is worth noting that King Salman bin Abdulaziz issued a decision to dismiss the country’s Director of Public Security, Khalid bin Qaraar Al-Harbi, and refer him to investigation, along with 18 others, whom he did not name, on charges of corruption and misusing public funds.
The Saudi Control and Anti-Corruption Authority also announced the arrest of 207 citizens and residents, including employees of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Interior, accusing them of bribery for their personal interests.
The Control and Anti-Corruption Authority also announced the investigation of 4 officers with the rank of major general in the Ministry of National Guard, for obtaining, during their period of work in the ministry, an amount of 212 million riyals, from the owner of a local company and a representative of foreign companies, in exchange for enabling foreign companies to contract with the ministry.
The authority also arrested a project manager in a major contracting company for paying bribes estimated at 24,500 million riyals (6530 million dollars) to a number of employees, in return for changing quantities and specifications related to a number of government projects.
Many cases were announced by the Saudi Public Prosecution and the corruption control agencies suddenly, where they searched, checked, and reviewed all these and other cases while overlooking the palace of the Saudi Crown Prince in America worth millions of dollars, the yacht, or the painting. All those millions of dollars were not seen by the Public Prosecution and the anti-corruption agencies as corruption, and they are unable to bring charges of corruption against MBS.
