Mohammed Al-Aufi
Makkah
The use of wasta or nepotism has become the norm in society. People often use the help of senior officials in government departments with family bonds of blood or friendship to fulfill their various needs, including fixing relatives in vacant positions.
The concept of wasta has become so wide spread in Saudi society that people resort to the help of an influential person even to achieve routine matters in order to avoid waiting in queues, expedite bureaucratic procedures and to narrow the time for appointments.
Everyone except a few make use of wasta. It is practiced by officials at all levels, even the government employee in the lowest grade. We have seen employees boasting of their wasta. They categorize officials and describe them as “useful” and “not useful.”
There is no surprise if wasta has taken top position among administrative corruption in a study conducted by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nazaha). The study has been published with the title “Financial and administrative corruption at government service agencies.”
The study was aimed at understanding the degree of fairness and financial and administrative transparency at government agencies and identifying various types of corruption and the mode of their spreading. The study was conducted taking opinion of a group of people who were randomly selected from employees to citizens who visit government departments to complete various procedures in three regions — Riyadh, Eastern Province and Makkah.
The study pointed out that 62.91 participants thought wasta is one of the leading forms of administrative corruption in the government sector.
This survey result is not something new. People already know about it and they talk about it when they meet each other. We know about people who look for a wasta before going to a government department to get their things done quickly. If this is the case for routine matters, people increasingly seek the help of wasta for getting employed in a department and receiving promotion.
Wasta has become the hallmark of administrative corruption. Many unqualified people have got jobs and promotions with the support of wasta and the Nazaha is aware of this fact. Unqualified and inexperienced people have got leadership and influential positions. This negative practice has denied the state the services of highly qualified people. Appointments and promotions are now taking place considering the family name of individuals. The competition remains between people having wasta and the individual who receives the backing of a highly influential person would succeed and win the position.
At government departments as well as in private companies we hear the talk that certain employees would remain in their jobs as long as the influential official remains in power. When the latter quits, the former will lose his job. People deal with certain employees with fear because of the latter’s family ties with the influential official in the department.
Nazaha does not need any survey to find out the negative impact of the wasta epidemic. By inspecting appointments and promotions at government departments, universities and public corporations it can easily find this corruption, which is spreading in a frightening way.
Wasta is also found in employment of women. Most female employees in a government department receive their jobs because of the power of an influential official or senior executive. Some of these women will have no qualification to get employed and all these happen in the face of the Civil Service Ministry, which closes it eyes against such negative practices.
If Nazaha wants to achieve some kind of success in its fight against corruption it should out an end to the phenomenon of wasta. The continuation of wasta in appointments and promotions would lead to brain drain with highly qualified people seeking jobs in other countries. We should realize that the loss of big brains is the real loss of any country. Many countries have taken steps to stop the brain drain and keep well-qualified people within their boundaries by providing them with great facilities and incentives.
