Adnan Shabrawee Okaz/Saudi Gazette JEDDAH — Ten thousand expatriate doctors registered at the General Organization of Social Insurance (GOSI) are paid less than SR2,000 a month, according to the assistant governor for insurance affairs at GOSI. Abdulaziz Al-Habdan said GOSI discovered fake Saudization cases and found that there are 2,000 expatriate doctors registered with the organization who purportedly get less than SR500 a month. He noted that some employers do not register their staff at GOSI while some provide inaccurate information about their employees' salaries in order to pay low subscription fees to the organization. During GOSI inspection visits, inspectors found some employers provided wrong information about their employees' monthly pay. Those employers circumvent GOSI laws, which is a violation, and intentionally write incorrect salary and housing allowance details in the application form to avoid paying subscription fees. This will have a negative impact on the future of Saudi employees because GOSI calculates the insurance amount based on the actual salary registered in its files. In this case, the insurance will not match the actual salary, the details of which should have been provided to GOSI. Al-Habdan said: “We are enforcing several procedures to stop these violations. “We've started a big media campaign to raise employers' awareness about GOSI laws and their benefits to citizens after retirement.” Al-Habdan urged citizens to inquire about their status and registration at the GOSI's website www.gosi.gov.sa, by calling the toll free number 8002143344 or visiting any GOSI office. He added that GOSI sends an SMS message to the employee once his name has been registered. Discussing the registration of non-Saudi husbands in the GOSI's system so they are eligible for retirement pension, Al-Habdan said GOSI laws are clear about this issue and only Saudi citizens who hold ID cards are eligible for pensions. However, non-Saudi husbands like other expatriates are eligible to apply for professional risk benefits at GOSI.
