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Saudi: Over 240 citizens and expats arrested for corruption

Saudi Arabia’s anti-graft authority has arrested 241 people — citizens and expatriates — for alleged involvement in corruption, the authority said.

The Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) said two municipal officials and a bank employee were arrested for taking a bribe of SR5.17 million for awarding a SR60 million project to a business.

“The accused used bank accounts of a company owned by the bank employee to deposit the money,” the authority said.

In a separate case, a director of operation and maintenance department, a director of mechanical systems department, and a warehouse keeper of a university, as well as a bank manager and a businessman were charged with bribery, abuse of power and forgery.

“The three university officials have allegedly taken a bribe of SR4,404,995 for awarding a number of projects worth SR13,844,579 to a company owned by the businessman and another owned by the university’s director of mechanical systems department.

“The bank manager has allegedly enabled the director of operation and maintenance at the university to deposit one million riyals in cash without verifying the source of the funds, and the accused used the money to buy real estate in the names of their relatives, to conceal its source,” the authority said.

A third case involved a former director of the safety department and head of the technical committee for project follow-up at a university, a businessman, and a resident engineer.

It involved a SR240,000 bribe for turning a blind eye to irregularities in three projects worth nearly SR7.7 million.

In another case, a former employee of the contracts and procurement department at an international airport, and a businessman, were suspended, in cooperation with the Civil Aviation Authority, after they allegedly enabled commercial entities belonging to the businessman to get 218 direct purchase orders.

The authority called on everyone to report any suspicious activities involving financial or administrative corruption, by phone, email or via the website.

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Gulf News

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