Okaz/Saudi Gazette MAKKAH — Preparations are currently underway for the establishment of an independent authority for awkaf (endowments) which will no longer be part of the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance, informed sources said on Monday. They said a number of the ministry's staff are now being transferred from the ministry to the new authority which may be set up in the next lunar month. The sources said the ministry's employees are competing to be transferred to the new authority because of the expected increase in their salaries in addition to the fringe benefits which, among others, will include housing allowance and medical insurance. Minister, Sheikh Saleh Al-Asheikh said the authority would be an independent body and would be headed by a governor at the rank of a minister. The establishment of the authority was decided by the Council of Ministers in August. Al-Asheikh said the ministry's role in the authority would only be limited to the executive Shariah aspects without any intervention in the management of its funds and finances. Al-Ashaikh said there are about 120,000 wakf buildings in the Kingdom of which a large number had no deeds but the ministry was able to provide them with official documents after hard work which took many years. He said the ministry also established 12 wakf funds to finance a number of religious and development activities. The minister said the Kingdom has the largest number of endowments worldwide with the majority of them in Makkah but said the number of the wakf buildings around the Grand Mosque were reduced due to the expansion projects. On the other hand, economists value the endowment assets in the Kingdom to be more than SR10 billion. They said, in addition to Makkah, there are a number of wakf buildings in Madinah, Riyadh and Taif. Mansour Abu Rayyash, a real estate expert, said the endowments recently supplied the ministry's treasury with more than SR7 billion.
