| 30 Jul 2008 |
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8 health officials accused of graft
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JEDDAH: Eight health officials in the Madinah province have been accused of taking bribes from 13 Saudi and foreign businessmen. The bribes were taken for granting licenses to open new pharmacies or shifting them to other places or transferring their ownership to other investors.
The eight, who face corruption charges by the Control & Investigation Board (CIB), are the director of medical licenses department, the director of health affairs, the director of administrative and financial affairs, two employees at the medical licenses department, a primary health care employee, a public relations manager and a retired health official.
The CIB has handed over the case to the Administrative Court after charging the eight with bribery and corruption, Al-Eqtisadiah Arabic daily reported yesterday, quoting informed sources.
Under Saudi law, government officials convicted of accepting bribes could be jailed for up to 10 years and fined SR500,000.
The eight officials allegedly received varying amounts of money from 13 investors and their agents. The officials demanded bribes in cash and other favors from clients with different nationalities including four Saudis, two Egyptians, a Yemeni and a Pakistani who owned pharmacies.
During investigations by CIB officials, the director of the medical licenses department confessed receiving bribes while the pharmacy owners acknowledge paying bribes in cash and paying his bills.
Investigators trapped the main suspect by paying him marked currencies through an agent at a café. They later questioned 20 health officials and investors.
The paper said one defendant was accused of demanding gifts valued at SR20,000 and payment for an obituary advertisement. He also asked pharmacy owners to pay for the expenses he incurred in holding parties and staying in hotels.
Defendant No. 2, according to CIB charges, received bribes from three pharmacy owners -- two Egyptians and a Saudi -- through a Chadian and a retired Saudi health official.
The director of the licenses department received bribes ranging from SR20,000 to SR45,000 from a Saudi pharmacy owner through a Jordanian pharmacist.
Abdul Ilah Saaty, vice dean of Jeddah Community College, condemned the corrupt practices and said they went against Islamic and cultural values. He called for deterrent punishment to prevent other government officials from taking bribes.
"I believe the CIB should intensify its efforts to stop administrative corruption," Saaty said and called for reactivating the anti-draft law and the transparency committee. "We should also reward officials who refuse to accept bribes."
Over the past year, the CIB has detected 6,821 criminal cases related to corruption, forgery, embezzlement and abuse of power in the civil service. According to the director of the Department of Research and Information in Dammam, Abdulaziz Al-Kaib, most of the cases were related to fraud. The rest included bribery (848 cases), embezzlement (46), abuse of power (101) and counterfeiting (179).
By P.K. Abdul Ghafour
© Arab News 2008
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