MADINAH — Several Hanakiya residents have complained about the 15-year delay in implementing the Effatani Al-Badrani Mosque project in the principality while the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, Endowment, Call and Guidance blamed the delay on the contractor's poor capacity and negligence. "Fifteen years have passed after laying the foundation stone for the project but the mosque still remains incomplete," said Razeek Hadi Al-Ruwaithy. "We have approached the ministry's branch office in Hanakiya several times with the hope of expediting the project's implementation but the response was not satisfactory," he said. "A philanthropist agreed to complete the project but the ministry asked him to pay the amount in advance to complete the project by itself," he told Al-Madinah Arabic daily. Al-Ruwaithy said a number of other philanthropists had promised to complete and furnish the mosque in the past, including a businessman who agreed to complete the work and hand over the key to the ministry but the man backed off due to difficult conditions. Ali Humaidi Al-Mushaieli said the residents had approached the minister of Islamic affairs to remove the obstacles facing the project. "The statement of the ministry's Hanakiya branch director is not convincing," he said. Faleh Hanas said it was the difficult conditions put forward by the ministry's Hanakiya office that delayed the project. "The branch director said his office was approaching a philanthropist to complete the project. But the philanthropist had left the place several years ago." Mansour Al-Rees said: "We had approached the ministry's office in Hanakiya five years ago and they said there was no change in the mosque's condition. The ministry recently expanded a mosque in the nearby town but it cannot accommodate all the worshipers in the town." Al-Rees urged the ministry to take immediate steps to complete the project so that people in the principality can perform daily prayers and take part in Friday prayer easily and comfortably. Dr. Mohammed Al-Ameen Al-Khatary, director of the ministry's branch office in Madinah, said they had awarded the project to a contractor for SR2.76 million and blamed the contractor's poor capacity and negligence for the delay. "We have sent three warning notices to the contractor threatening to withdraw the project but every time he promised to complete the work soon. We have given him enough time to complete the project and hand it over to the ministry," he explained. Al-Khatary said the contractor was not employing enough workers to complete the project quickly. We have now prepared a report to withdraw the project from the present contractor. Tenders will be called shortly to award the project to another contractor," he added.
