A Saudi minister alleged to have abused his power and indulged in favouritism has fallen into disgrace, according to Akhbar24.
Civil Service Minister Khalid bin Abdullah Al Araj is now facing investigation over allegations that he had appointed his son at a high salary, circumventing rules and regulations.
Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud issued an order sacking him and referring him for investigation. He has been replaced by Essam bin Said as acting Civil Service Minister, according to SPA.
The Saudi leader ordered a ministerial probe committee affiliated with the Royal Court to be set up to question the ex-minister.
Under articles 2, 3, 4 and 5 of the law on ministers’ accountability, the probe committee shall include two ministers, or two officials with the same rank, in addition to two judicial court presidents.
The mandated probe committee shall submit its final report to the Saudi cabinet within 30 days.
The Cabinet would then convene a special session to discuss the committee’s report within 15 days on receiving the report before taking its final decision.
If convicted, the sacked minister could be jailed for three to 10 years, said Almarsd online newspaper, quoting well-informed sources.
Al Araj is accused of appointing his son, a secondary school graduate, as project director at the Ministry of Municipalities, allocating him a salary of 21,000 Saudi riyals.
(Saad Al Thuwaini)
The case came to light last October when Saudi citizen Saad Al Thuwaini lodged a complaint against the minister with the National Anti-Corruption Commission (Nazaha), a government authority entrusted with protecting integrity and combating corruption in Saudi Arabia.
The complainant then engaged the public on twitter, launching hashtag #minister appoints his son at salary of 21,000.
(Saad Al Thuwaini's twitter account)
He also posted a copy of the complaint he had submitted to Nazaha, along with compelling evidence corroborating his claims.
The anti-corruption panel investigated the case and submitted its final report to the Saudi King last November, concluding that the minister did break the law.
A number of Saudi ministers have already clicked 'unfollow' to stop links with their disgraced colleague on his twitter account, said Almarsd.
King Salman also sacked Minister Culture and Information Dr Adel bin Zaid Al Toraifi and replaced him with Dr Awad bin Saleh Al Awad.
The Saudi leader also relieved Minister of Communications and Information Technology Mohamed bin Ibrahim Al Suwaiyel and General Authority of Sports president Prince Abdulla bin Msaid bin Abdulaziz of their posts and replaced them with Abdullah bin Ammar Al Sawahlah and Mohammed bin Abdulmalik Al Sheikh, respectively.