Al-Jazirah newspaper

After five long years of deliberations, the proposal to allow public officials to start their own businesses was shot down in the Advisory Council after some members voted against it. The board decided to completely discontinue studying draft Article 13 of the Civil Service Law under Rule 23 of the Shoura Council due to a perceived incompatibility with the National Transformation Program 2020 and Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 and the principle of equality of opportunity for citizens.

There were also concerns that combating commercial concealment would be hindered and that state officials would become less productive since they would be busy looking after their own businesses.

With all due respect to the honorable members of the council and their visions, I actually do not find anything wrong with allowing public officials to own businesses as long as certain conditions are met. Of course, this cannot conflict with Vision 2030 or the national transformation program. Employees who spent their undergraduate years working for the government should be allowed to start their own businesses under a new unified system so that they can improve their living conditions. Employees can be given a limited period of time to do so and I believe this will lower the pressure on the public sector.

Five years ago when the council agreed to study the proposal, one of the members of the Shoura Council said to his colleagues that most of them engaged in commercial concealment to work in business alongside their official work in the government.

Recently, Dr. Ahmed Alzilaay proposed amendments to Article 13 of the Civil Service Law and said: “Public officials are concealing their jobs behind the names of their relatives, where you can find a barbershop being run in the name of an official’s wife and a market in the name of someone’s daughter, and this increases the legal problems linked to inheritance.” Indeed, sooner or later, people will find a way to start a business.

It is obvious that the members of the honorable council have completely stopped looking at the proposal, but they will have to eventually consider it because the proposal for establishing a strict system for public officials to have their own businesses might come from the Ministry of Trade and Labor, which may find that doing so will increase opportunities for government employees to improve their living conditions and leave the public sector.