The Ministry of Labor is blaming Saudi banks for delaying the Hafiz Program because they are not opening up bank accounts fast enough for young Saudi job seekers, said Dr. Abdul Kareem Al-Najaidi, Deputy Director General of the Human Resources Development Fund at the Ministry of Finance. The Hafiz Program was set up by the King to pay unemployment benefits to thousands of jobless Saudis. Al-Najaidi said the ministry had sent a letter to the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) about the banks' delay in opening accounts for Saudi male and female jobseekers who have registered for the benefits, according to a report in Al-Madina Arabic daily newspaper. He said the ministry's letter urged Saudi banks to speed up the process because the King had decreed that the benefits should be paid from the start of Muharram, which is toward the end of November. He said banks have a duty to help citizens. Al-Najaidi said the ministry will take action to ensure this problem is overcome. Sara Al-Ghamdi, who works at a local bank's branch for women, said there was such severe overcrowding at the bank that the police had to be brought in to restore order. She said the bank opened only at 1 P.M., and not at the scheduled 9 A.M. Meanwhile, some unemployed married women are angry at the government's decision to exclude them from the benefits. They said that the decree did not exclude any specific category from the program.
