Saudi anti-graft authority unearths financial fraud amounting to SR39mn

An official source at Saudi Arabia’s Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) revealed on Thursday that the authority recently received a report from the Human Resources Development Fund (Hadaf) over the disbursement of huge sums of meant for one of its commercial enterprises support programs in an irregular manner.

The money was disbursed by reusing payment orders that were made previously and transferred to bank accounts belonging to commercial enterprises owned by a citizen.

The source said that authority immediately swung into action conducting field investigations, and after reviewing those bank accounts it was proven that they were not entitled to the support and that the total transferred sums amounted to more than SR39 million.

After diligent investigations, it was found that a citizen had exploited a loophole in the electronic system and hacked the official website of (Hadaf) and activated a new authorized user that enabled him to access old payment orders and disburse amounts to account numbers to the enterprises that he owns. The total transferred amount reached up to SR39.8 million between 2018 and 2020.

Investigations exposed a loophole in the system used by one of the government entities that was admitted by the accused, and through which money could be disbursed (investigation procedures require that that entity's name not be disclosed).​

The authority affirms on the continuation to pursue anyone who exploits the public office to achieve personal gain or harm the public interest in any way possible, and that it is continuing to hold the negligent parties accountable and apply what the law rules against them with no tolerance.

The authority also appreciates the efforts of government entities in fighting financial and administrative corruption and the development of policies and procedures that promote speedy achievements which shut any inlets for corruption, and it commends the cooperation of those entities and the media on their effort in promoting integrity, transparency and fighting corruption, and it would like as well to thank the citizens and residents in reporting through its available channels, including the toll-free number (980) for any practices involving financial or administrative corruption that would undermine the efforts of the government to support and promote the path of comprehensive development in light of Vision 2030.

saudi gazette .