Some public sector employees who have reported corruption cases have been mistreated, said Chairman of National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nazaha) Khalid Al-Muhaisen, Makkah daily reported. Nazaha will protect whistle blowers against any retaliatory action from their superiors, he said, noting that Nazaha treats such information with full confidentiality. Al-Muhaisen's remarks came on the sidelines of the Second Nazaha International Conference, which was inaugurated in Riyadh, Monday. A study conducted by Nazaha showed that most financial malpractice cases in public agencies involved officials who hold senior positions (around 51 percent) while a smaller number of such cases involved employees who do not hold such senior positions. Another study showed that wasta, loosely translated as "connections" or "influence" is quite popular in the public sector. In fact, it is the most widespread corruption practice in government agencies whereas negligence and failure to do one's duty is the second reason behind corruption practices in these agencies, said Al-Muhaisen. The study classified the types of misconduct reports it has received from whistle blowers and noted that the types fall under the following categories: financial and administrative corruption, low-level services, negligence, financial violations and failure to comply with laws. Regarding the havoc caused by torrential rains that hit the southern and eastern regions of the country, Nazaha is investigating to find out any negligence on part of any government agency. Nazaha won't, he said, hesitate to name and shame anyone who is found to be involved in any malpractice that resulted in the damage caused by the rains. Nazaha has been under the fire lately after the ranking of the Kingdom in the Corruption Perception Index dropped. Ali Al-Naimi, an adviser at the Royal Court and the former minister of petroleum and mineral resources, called for updating and amending the current legislation and laws to fight corruption practices in the country. "We need to have a strong will to fight this menace and bring the laws up to date. We should give more trust to young leaders who believe in change and have high level of integrity," he said.
