1,207 mobile phone violators face penal action

RIYADH – The Ministry of Labor and Social Development has started taking punitive measures against 1,207 violators of Saudization rules in the mobile phone sales and maintenance sectors. “There were a total of 1,345 violations, of which 1,205 cases have been referred to the committee for penal actions under the ministry,” said Muhammad Al-Faleh, assistant undersecretary for inspection and work environment development at the ministry. He said that the ministry, in cooperation with the ministries of interior, municipal and rural affairs, commerce and investment, and communications and information technology, has so far undertaken 11,608 inspection raids on mobile sales outlets and maintenance shops across the Kingdom to check any violation of Saudization regulations. As a result of the inspections during the period between Sept. 3 and Nov. 16, a total of 1,079 shops have been shut down and another 138 were served with warning notices, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Al-Faleh said a total of 2,557 inspections were carried out in the Eastern Province and subsequently 88 shops were closed down in the region. A total of 286 shops were closed down in Makkah province following 2,312 raids whereas in Riyadh region 270 shops were shut down subsequent to 1,855 inspections. A total of 1,363 inspections were carried out in Al-Qassim region and that resulted in the closure of 102 shops for various violations. Al-Faleh urged the public to lend a hand of cooperation to the ministry for the strict enforcement of Saudization of this vital sector that provided jobs for thousands of young Saudi men and women. “The people should inform the ministry about any violation of the regulations through making calls on the uniform customer service number of 19911,” he said adding that the ministry will show no leniency to the violators of the Saudization regulation. The ministry started enforcing 100 percent Saudization of sales outlets and maintenance shops of mobile phones and their accessories effective from Sept. 3 after giving a grace period of six months for the implementation of the new regulation. The mobile phone sales and maintenance sectors were hitherto dominated by expatriates.