Abdullah Omar Khayat

Okaz

 

THE National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nazaha) Chairman Muhammad Al-Shareef has recently said his organization has reported to higher authorities 400 corruption cases related to negligence and delay in implementing vital projects.



Al-Shareef also said the commission had received over 20 million SMS text messages and 25 reports related to corruption. He stressed that only those who have been found guilty of corruption by a court of law will be named and shamed in the media.



The commission sends periodic and annual reports to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah, according to Al-Shareef. Apparently, the most effective solution to eradicate rampant corruption is to enforce the so-called ‘How did you earn this money?’ accountability system, which was introduced 40 years ago but has never come into force.



Noted columnist Abid Khazandar wrote in Al-Riyadh daily on March 18 about this fact. Khazandar said the system came into existence in 1962 but had never been put in action.



The ostentatious display of wealth by some former government officials posed a lot of questions about the way they earned this money. Most of the officials did not hold high positions and were not paid large salaries; yet, some of them had a lot of properties that they could never possibly have possessed by relying only on their salaries, Khazandar wrote.



Deputy Chairman of Nazaha, Dr. Abdullah Al-Abdulqader, said last year the commission had proposed a system regarding government officials’ illegitimate earning of money and submitted the proposal to King Abdullah. The question that poses itself is will this system replace the 40-year-old one? Will the new system accuse the government official who earns money illegitimately of corruption without material evidence?



In any case, we have not heard any follow-up news from the deputy chairman regarding the new system.



Recently, I read in Okaz newspaper about three senior government officials whose bank accounts are being monitored by three government authorities. The officials’ bank balances have multiplied over the past eight years.

Does this mean the old system, or maybe the new one, has finally been enforced? I hope this is true. The commission should provide the public with more information on this matter.



It is high time the commission enforced the old accountability system to eradicate corruption. It is the only way to end corruption. One should always remember that prayers of those who earn money illegally will never be answered by God.