A senior official at the Saudi Ministry of Health has refused more than SR10 million (about $2.7 million) in bribery from a private health care company.
Saudi Minister of Health Dr. Hamad Al-Manie revealed Tuesday that police have detained the owner of a large pharmacy group for trying to bribe the director general of the medical and pharmaceutical licensing department for the transfer of ownership of 200 pharmacies evading ministry regulations.
“The arrest was made in coordination with the Anti-Corruption Investigation Department at the Ministry of Interior,” the minister said, according to Arab News daily.
The ministry has recently introduced new regulations to curb some monopoly business practices involving the Saudi private health care sector. Such practices, the ministry said in a statement, have led to many complaints regarding unfair business competition that has resulted in growing bankruptcy in the Saudi private health care sector.
This latest scandal surfaced at a time when the ministry is planning to issue new regulations as part of an attempt to prevent bribery, forgery and the exploitation of personal authority for private ends, the nwespaper added. The new regulations state that no senior administrative official will be allowed to remain in the same job for more than four years.
According to the Riyadh-based Naif Arab Academy for Security Sciences (NAASS), 364 cases of bribery involving 747 people, including 486 Saudis, were reported in the Kingdom during 2003. (menareport.com)
© 2004 Mena Report (www.menareport.com)
