Seven top Jeddah Mayoralty officials are to face charges of fraud and embezzlement of funds in connection with last year's flood disaster. Okaz has learnt that the Control and Investigation Bureau (CIB) recently received the files of the seven officials from the dengue fever program. Their cases will be attached to the main file related to the Jeddah flood disaster. An informed source told Okaz that the CIB will charge these officials within the next few days with embezzlement, wasting of public funds, bribes, cover-ups and using incorrect documents. They will be referred to the judiciary and if found guilty, will have to face public rights penalties. “Among the officials is an academic from one of the universities, who was seconded to work at the mayoralty. There are also four employees occupying various posts and two engineers in the General Administration for Combating Insects and Disease Prevention. One of them left his job before the financial irregularities were uncovered.” The sources estimate that SR30 million was involved in the alleged illegal activities by the employees. This figure was obtained after an investigation into one of the accused. Lawyer Dr. Omar Al-Khouli questioned why this case was being attached to that of the flood disaster. He pointed out that the Royal Order to form the committee to investigate the disaster, has restricted its work and powers to investigate the harm caused by the floods and to determine who was responsible. Al-Khouli argued that the investigations should not have exceeded the committee's limits by considering incidents beyond the floods. He said it was not right to say that dengue fever was directly or indirectly related to the floods. He argued that the judiciary will not consider this kind of case. For his part, lawyer Sulaiman Al-Jumay'iy, with whom some of the accused are negotiating to plead for them, said he can only represent them on condition that the official case document is issued by the CIB and that he is allowed to study the document meticulously. Al-Jumay'iy said some of them hold advanced qualifications in engineering and planning. Al-Jumay'iy said those involved in the case had been assigned a number of administrative, technical and financial functions when they were working at the Jeddah Mayoralty. He said all the accusations leveled against them focus on administrative and financial corruption and embezzlement. These charges are far removed from the cases involving the flood disaster. He added that he will not agree to plead for them unless it is proven that they were “ignorant about the administrative system that was being followed at the mayoralty” and were also not aware of the regulations related to the funds they were spending. “I will plead for them if it is proven they were ignorant or that they did not intend to commit any criminal act.” Al-Jumay'iy said their involvement in this case means that they had absolute powers to spend from the public funds without any legal justification. – Okaz/SG, with incorrect documents and without any supervisory control. Al-Jumay'iy said it appears that there was a lack of specific rules and systems or documents showing how the money should be spent at the mayoralty. This has resulted in many committing violations and encouraged criminal behavior. This case is the latest alleged violation uncovered by the CIB at the Jeddah Mayoralty. Saudi Gazette has reported on a number of these cases over the past few days. On Monday, it was reported that the CIB detected a number of violations committed by the Jeddah Mayoralty in the employment of non-Saudis to the posts of assistant mayor, deputy assistant mayor, director general, administration director, unit director and adviser. The CIB said the mayoralty appointed 37 non-Saudi contract workers, who were not under its sponsorship, to leading and supervisory posts, and had registered them officially on laborer visas. Saudi Gazette reported Saturday that a CIB report found that the Jeddah Mayoralty has broken the law by collecting fees of SR166 million for various services and claiming this amount as a donation and not revenue. According to the report released by the CIB, the collection of fees can only take place under a Royal Order. The money was raised from various services including waste removal and charges on sewage contractors and health centers. The money was paid into the mayoralty's donations account. The amounts collected should be considered as revenue, not donations, because the mayoralty used government assets to raise the money.
