Al-Madinah THREE months ago, a court in the Eastern Province sentenced an employee at the Directorate of Health Affairs in Al-Ahsa to 10 years in prison and SR1 million fine. He was involved in fraud, bribery and embezzlement of public money in contracts and approvals to import medical supplies to the Maternity and Children's Hospital in Al-Ahsa. The court also sentenced five others to 3 to 7 years in jail in addition to fines of between SR100,000 and SR1 million and returning the stolen money. If these crimes were not so serious, the punishment would not be so severe. The report that cited these crimes and sentences did not mention how many years prior to the arrests had these criminals been getting away with murder. The report did not even mention the employment grades of the accused although evidence shows that they used to hold top-level management positions because they had the authority to approve and sign contracts to import medical equipment and supplies. But corruption operations are even bigger tasks that only people at the top of the management chain with lots of privileges are capable of achieving. My feeling is that our "friend" and his gang have been in their positions for so long and when it was time for them to leave their next destination was jail. But how could they hide for so long? Why didn't the Ministry of Health move earlier and faster to combat this terrible corruption? If so, why keep this person or that person in their top position for a very long time even if in good faith? Another question: Is what happened in that area (and with that official who worked in a ministry) an isolated incident? Can anyone rule out this from happening in a different area under another official who works in a different ministry? Is the germ of corruption quarantined? Or is it so acute that it became resistant to all types of vaccines except for the piety vaccine? When the water is calm and the society is at peace with it does it mean that nothing is boiling underneath? This crime might have been insidious, but the lesson from it is not: How common it could become and how the same viruses and germs could affect the other organs of our body politic. Anyhow, these events testify to the fact that the disease is in its late stages and treatment is difficult.
