PEOPLE were busy of late following up the new royal decrees, particularly the appointment of a number of new ministers. The changes are considered to be an indication of a better future for the Kingdom. However, there is one person who did not have his share of the spotlight though he was appointed by a royal decree. He is Khaled Al-Mohaisin, the new chairman of the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nazaha). I do not blame the citizens for not giving his appointment the attention it deserves because they have been disappointed by the commission that he will be chairing. People pinned high hopes on Nazaha when it was first established. They thought it would obliterate the corruption under which government resources were being embezzled. Due to the prevailing corruption, paperwork was delayed, development projects faltered and a number of violations committed. However, with time people came to realize that Nazaha was nothing more than a tamed animal unable to fight corruption. In fact people started mocking Nazaha and making fun of it. The government departments did not bother about it when it should have been a source of real worry for them. Subsequently, the hopes that Nazaha would fight corruption faded. The soap opera of corruption continued. The stealing of government money went by as usual. The faltering projects increased. We have not felt that Nazaha had practiced much of the authority granted to it. In all fairness, Nazaha might have practiced very little of its powers. These were mainly the investigation of some financial and administrative violations, especially in the government operation and maintenance contracts. It forwarded these violations to the departments concerned with supervision, control and investigation according to the nature of the violation itself. It also followed up the return of the stolen funds to the government treasury. But have we ever heard that the funds embezzled under corruption have ever been reimbursed? Though we did not feel the presence of Nazaha in the past, it started to expand. It opened new branch offices and appointed new employees to add yet a new burden to the government budget. We hope that during the tenure of the new chairman, Nazaha will have the ability to deal with corruption sternly. We hope that it will be able to publicize the corrupt and their workplaces. We also hope that Nazaha will closely follow up the issue of reimbursing the government funds stolen through corruption. Finally, Nazaha should stop wasting government funds on building new offices and establishing new branches.
