As part of continuing its efforts over the past two and half years to preserve the country’s integrity and combat corruption, Saudi Arabia has announced that it will be setting up a Control and Anti-Corruption Commission, which will include all committees and unites specialized in fighting administrative and financial corruption. Indeed, this new body will be the result of incorporating the country’s already existing Control and Investigation Board and the Administrative Investigations Department (Mabahith) into its National Anti-Corruption Commission.
The announcement was made this week by King Salman, who, according to Saudi Gazette, “issued three royal decrees approving the organizational and structural procedures related to combating financial and administrative corruption” and who also specifically ordered the establishment of a criminal investigation and prosecution unit within the newly established Commission to handle “the investigation and prosecution of criminal cases related to financial and administrative corruption.”
As reported by Asharq Al-Awsat, the head of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, Mazen Al-Kahmous, explained that the newly created body “will have the necessary powers to pursue and hold accountable the corrupt, ad return the looted funds to the public treasury, in a manner that ensures the strengthening of the principle of the rule of law, and the accountability of every official whatever his position.”
In 2017, following the ascension of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman to his role, Saudi Arabia embarked on a major anti-corruption crackdown that swept up a number of the Kingdom’s royals and businessmen. By the beginning of 2019, Saudi Arabia ended the long-running anti-corruption probe with staggering results: the Saudi Royal Court announced in January of this year that the country retrieved more than 400 billion Saudi riyals, about $106 billion, to the state treasury.
