From Day 1, the crown prince said in a television interview in May 2017, he recognized that, for the anti-corruption effort to succeed, it had to come from the top and it should not focus only on the lower ranks. When asked in that interview about a Cabinet minister who had been dismissed because of corruption, the crown prince said: “I want to reassure you that no one involved in corruption will escape justice, no matter who he is. He will not escape justice, whether he is a minister, prince or anyone. Whenever there is enough evidence against someone, he will definitely be held accountable.” He has made that campaign a priority for the government ever since.

The most important agency fighting corruption is the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority, also known as Nazaha, which was established with the merger of two governmental bodies: The National Commission for Combating Corruption and the Oversight and Investigation Commission. The former was set up in 2011 and focused on creating awareness about corruption, while the latter was formed in 1971 as an investigative body focused on fighting corruption and mismanagement in government agencies. In December 2019, the two entities were merged to form Nazaha, which was given a much broader mandate than its predecessors.

Nazaha has done a remarkable job in its first two years, especially considering how entrenched corruption — including bribery, embezzlement, money laundering, favoritism, the abuse of authority and reckless mismanagement — had become in Saudi Arabia. The rapid growth of government during the oil booms was not matched by enough checks and balances to prevent corruption. Burned by decades of corruption, Saudis greeted the new anti-corruption efforts with enthusiasm and hope.

The new authority does a good job of creating awareness about its efforts by regularly sending text messages to millions of private citizens. And its social media accounts are followed by nearly 2 million people, with its Arabic Twitter account boasting 1.7 million followers.

Nazaha has been very busy in the 25 months since it was established. In the past year, it has conducted 38,000 oversight visits and questioned nearly 8,000 individuals suspected of wrongdoing, mostly government employees, leading to the arrest of more than 2,600, including many high-ranking officials.
In a bulletin released last week, Nazaha said that last month alone it initiated 4,286 oversight visits and questioned 634 individuals, leading to 234 arrests.

Several of those arrested were released on bail in line with the Criminal Procedure Law. Among those arrested were employees of government ministries (including the Ministries of Defense, Interior, National Guard, Foreign Affairs, Health, Justice, Education, and Municipal, Rural Affairs and Housing) for involvement in various crimes.

In previous bulletins, the agency listed employees of other government agencies where corruption was uncovered. They included judges and notaries, as well as other high-ranking civilian officials and uniformed officers from the military and internal security services. Top officials, including Cabinet ministers and generals, have been dismissed as a result of Nazaha’s investigations.

One of the most important cases was that of a top general who was the head of public security. In September last year, King Salman ordered him dismissed and investigated by Nazaha. Previously, in 2020, a high-ranking military officer and member of the royal family was also dismissed and publicly named as a target for investigation.

Nazaha has publicized court judgments in some of the cases. Last month, it issued a summary of several instances (without naming names) where criminal courts had convicted and sentenced government officials and private citizens to jail time and fines. They included the cases of a justice official who took a $4.1 million bribe to fraudulently issue a land deed and a notary who took a $347,000 bribe for a similar illegal transaction. Two members of the public prosecutor’s office were also convicted of bribery and abuse of authority and sentenced to time in prison and fines.

A security official and customs officer were also convicted of bribery, embezzlement, forgery and money laundering in two separate cases. An ambassador was convicted of bribery and abuse of power for issuing visas illegally. And a general and colonel were also convicted of forgery and sentenced to jail time and fines in two separate cases.

Last August, Nazaha put out a similar statement about eight criminal convictions. The cases included a judge who was convicted of accepting a bribe and sentenced to 10 years and a fine; a regional administrator convicted of bribery and embezzlement; a municipal officer in charge of land management convicted of bribery, forgery and money laundering; a company official punished for offering a bribe to an education official; a lawyer convicted of money laundering and offering a bribe to a government employee; and three employees in the public prosecutor’s office who committed bribery.

A civil defense colonel was also convicted of accepting a bribe, embezzlement and abuse of authority, and a lower-ranking security officer convicted of accepting gifts and abuse of authority. Some cases included convictions of the private individuals who offered the bribe or were otherwise partners in crime with the government officials.

Obviously, these are just the tip of the iceberg of what Nazaha does. While its good work has become well known within Saudi Arabia, it could probably do more to publicize the results of its work to a wider audience, as well as to share its experiences and best practices with its counterparts around the world.

Providing more in-depth information to local and foreign journalists and researchers about the prosecution of corrupt individuals and the reforms brought about as a result of its thousands of investigations would help, as would providing access to trials. It is a success story that needs to be widely publicized. At the same time, publicity about the punishments that await dishonest officials could help deter corruption in the future.