Saudi Arabia dropped two rankings on Transparency International’s Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) from last year.
The CPI ranks 180 countries and territories by their perceived levels of public sector corruption on a scale of zero (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
According to the 2022 CPI, Saudi Arabia had a score of 51 points, ranking the country in 54th place out of 180 countries.
According to the index, Saudi Arabia’s efforts to combat corruption have been declined in 2022 as anti-corruption mechanisms are not available.
Well-informed sources told us that the brutal repression and a growing climate of fear not only are devastating for the rights and well-being of Saudi citizens, but also undermine the Kingdom’s stability and governance.
Petty corruption offenses are regularly punished in Saudi Arabia in order to improve MBS’s image, while royal corruption went unpunished.
Instead of improving his people’s living situation, MBS continues to spend billions of dollars hosting major entertainment, cultural, and sporting events as a deliberate strategy to deflect his image as a pervasive human rights violator.
Observes have recently raised concerns over the Crown Prince’s extravagant spending on espionage activities and repression campaigns after several western media sources revealed the Saudi unprecedented spending over the past few years.
The Wall Street Journal said that MBS spent $50 million on his accession ceremony.
The paper further revealed that boats carrying some 150 women, from Brazil, Russia and elsewhere, docked in the summer of 2015 at Velaa Private Island, an opulent Maldives resort. Upon arrival, each woman was driven in a golf cart to a clinic, tested for sexually transmitted diseases and settled into a private villa.
For its part, the New York Times said that MBS bought the Chateau Louis XIV for over $300 million in 2015.
The 2015 purchase appears to be one of several extravagant acquisitions — including a $500 million yacht and a $450 million Leonardo da Vinci painting — by a prince who is leading a sweeping crackdown on corruption and self-enrichment by the Saudi elite and preaching fiscal austerity at home, according to the US paper.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia decided to triple its value added tax rate and suspend a cost-of-living allowance for state employees.
The cost of living allowance will be suspended as of June 1, and the value added tax will be increased to 15 percent from 5 percent as of July 1, according to the state news agency.
The austerity measures being introduced come despite the unprecedented extravagant spending by the Kingdom’s de facto ruler.
