Mind the budget

Mind the budget

The General Auditing Bureau in Saudi Arabia has accused some government departments of mishandling their budgets, reports Arab News.

January 11, 2010 9:55 by P.K. Abdul Ghafour

The GAB chief spelled out seven major violations: excess payment without bills; noncooperation of government departments in stopping violations; delay in implementing vital projects and low quality of project implementation due to dearth of supervision; lack of internal monitoring regimes; negligence in collecting public funds at the appointed time; noncompliance of departments with financial rules and instructions; weak performance of some state-funded companies, incurring continuous heavy losses.

Faqeeh urged all ministries and government departments to follow budget regulations and strictly apply the measures to collect public funds. He also reminded them of the Cabinet decision to set up internal auditing units in every government department.

“We have to deepen the principles of transparency and frankness and tackle the areas of weakness in time in order to achieve an efficient and high quality government management,” Faqeeh said.

He requested the government to continue its support to GAB in order to carry out its mission effectively and objectively. Faqeeh presented copies of the annual report to King Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan in separate meetings. The king and crown prince commended the bureau’s efforts in the service of the Kingdom and wished it success in its mission.

Arab News

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Tags: accusation, budget, GAB, General Auditing Bureau, government, Saudi Arabia