'Anti-graft' drive will help boost development: Riyadh

By Fares Karam

RIYADH (AA) - A wide-ranging “anti-corruption” drive, which remains ongoing in Saudi Arabia, will boost sustainable development in the kingdom, the Saudi cabinet asserted on Tuesday.

Last week, Saudi authorities detained 11 princes, four sitting cabinet members and a dozen former government ministers in what was described as a massive “anti-corruption” sweep.

The arrests came only hours after an “anti-corruption” committee was drawn up by Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman.

“The royal decree [to establish the committee] will contribute to enhancing monitoring mechanisms, principles of governance, accountability and justice, and the safeguarding of individuals’ and companies’ rights,” the cabinet said in a statement.

The decree, it added, would also serve to consolidate the government’s “reformist approach” to fighting corruption, accelerate national development, and bolster the Saudi economy.

According to Saudi Arabia’s official SPA news agency, the committee has the authority to investigate, arrest, issue travel bans against, and freeze financial accounts of individuals suspected of corruption.

The committee has already announced that it plans to reopen the case of the 2009 floods in Jeddah that left more than 100 people dead, along with the outbreak of the Corona virus (otherwise known as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome, or MERS) in 2012.