Details of corruption cases including embezzlement of public funds, money laundering, financing terrorism and tax evasion revealed

The report stated that a number of these cases were referred to the Public Funds Courts, which have so far decided on 4 cases related to the failure of banks and exchange companies to comply with the provisions of the Anti-Money Laundering Law and practicing the exchange profession without licenses. It indicated that judicial rulings were issued convicting these banks, fining them millions of riyals and obligating them to implement all requests from the Financial Information Collection Unit.

He pointed out that there are many cases still pending before the Public Funds Court, including the cases of contracts to implement the Aden Refinery Power Plant project, and facilitating the seizure of lands in the free zone in Aden.

According to the report, the Public Prosecution took action in a number of cases before it through a set of urgent legal procedures and interventions to preserve public funds, in addition to referring a number of other complaints, reports and cases under investigation to the Central Agency for Control and Accounting and the relevant authorities, in order to provide them with more evidence, reports and documents necessary to proceed with the case.

The Public Prosecution complained about the lack of response from some ministries and government agencies, which led to the failure of its action in several cases that are still under investigation.

The Public Prosecution cited an example of this in the case of harming the state’s interests and customs evasion by a former governor of a province who still refuses to appear before the judiciary to this day, after about 27 billion riyals of his funds were frozen while he continues to be pursued for importing tens of billions of embezzled public funds.

Counter-terrorism

On the external level and international cooperation, the Public Prosecution said in its report that it had received a number of requests to freeze the assets and funds of some entities and individuals for engaging in activities related to money laundering and financing terrorism.

Reports indicated that among these violations was the Supreme Passports Committee imposing an increase in fees for issuing regular passports and allocating part of the general revenue fees to spend on committee costs for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Immigration, Passports and Nationality Authority, and additional income for the Consulate General in Jeddah without legal justification.

The agency reported that the total amounts spent in this manner amounted to 91 million and 236 thousand Saudi riyals.

The report of the agency also concluded that the consulate did not commit to depositing the amounts collected from fees for issuing regular passports and special fines for the period from the beginning of 2018 until the end of 2022, amounting to 156 million and 656 thousand Saudi riyals, explaining that what was deposited as general revenue was limited to an amount of 12 million and 750 thousand riyals.

Regarding the Yemeni Embassy in the Arab Republic of Egypt, the report revealed that employees had seized $268,000 of consular income revenues through forgery in official documents by issuing passports with the profession of student, knowing in advance that the profession was not valid, and collecting a full passport fee from them in the amount of $95, and transferring the fees for those passports in the automated system and actual reports in the amount of $27, thus proving consular income revenues at less than what was actually collected from citizens. The report also spoke of other violations related to the exploitation of some of the benefits granted to the embassy and members of the diplomatic corps.

The Central Agency for Control and Accounting revealed the commission of many violations and breaches of the provisions of the laws and regulations in force regarding all contracts related to the provision of petroleum derivatives for the year 2022 AD, worth $285 million, which resulted in harm to public funds due to the inflated financial burdens borne by the public treasury, and the preference of the interests of the contracted companies at the expense of the public interest.

The Central Organization for Control and Accounting said that the results of its review of the contracts of the Aden Refinery Company with a Chinese company revealed the waste of public money through projects contracted with the aforementioned Chinese company at a total cost of 180 million 543 thousand dollars under the name of modernizing the refinery without there being an actual need for it.

The Central Organization for Control and Accounting spoke about many irregularities and violations that accompanied the process of purchasing and contracting to operate the two ships (Princess of Aden and Pearl of Crater), as well as the costs of renting ships to transport oil derivatives, which resulted in the waste of huge sums and the squandering of the company’s assets.

Regarding the Aden Free Zone, the Authority concluded that the leadership of the Free Zone facilitated the seizure of its lands and trading in them by approving the actions taken by some investors, such as buying and selling in the Free Zone lands without any right under the umbrella of relinquishing projects such as plots of land to the public and other violations.

floating ship

The report of the Central Agency for Control and Accounting on the results of the review of the preliminary contract for the purchase of electrical energy with a capacity of (100) megawatts carried on a floating ship from the company (Prism Enterprise) revealed many irregularities and violations that accompanied the contracting process, which was supposed to last for three years for a total amount of (128,056,800) dollars.

The Authority indicated that it concluded, through reviewing the documents and papers it was able to find related to the energy purchase contract for the floating vessel, that the officials in charge of managing the electricity sector and the relevant authorities approved and approved the conclusion of the contract by including some unfair clauses or conditions that fall within the facts of giving priority to the interests of the contracting company at the expense of the public interest.

According to the Central Agency, the contract was signed on 4/6/2022 AD, the documentary credit was opened on 11/7/2022 AD, the advance payment was paid, and the specified period for starting the operation of the station ended. However, it was noted that the aforementioned company was late in bringing in the floating ship and operating the station, in light of the failure of the specialists in the electricity sector to charge the aforementioned company with all the compensations and fines due to it and specified under the concluded contract.

He explained that this matter resulted in the continued renewal of previous energy purchase contracts for diesel-powered power plants and the increase in financial burdens borne by the public treasury in exchange for the differences resulting from the rise in global diesel fuel prices and the rise in its consumption rates by an annual average of more than (107) million dollars.

The report of the Central Agency for Control and Accounting revealed that among the violations stipulated in the aforementioned contract was the obligation of the electricity sector to pay an amount of (17,856,600) dollars for the value of implementing the transmission lines and the transformer station, with an increase exceeding (10) million dollars over its value specified according to the offers submitted by other companies, which resulted in the waste of that amount without any justification, in addition to the possibility of contracting to purchase that station and lines directly from specialized companies.

The report also pointed out that the contract concluded with the aforementioned company did not include any obligations or conditions through which that company would be obligated to bear all burdens or losses resulting from the environmental damages resulting from it, or what confirms the obligation of the aforementioned company to provide all means and requirements related to protecting the marine environment from energy production waste, which may result in harm to the fish wealth, which is one of the main sources of national income.

Petromasila

In the context of the process of reviewing and evaluating the performance of PetroMasila Company, reports from the Central Agency for Control and Accounting, and other official reports, revealed a number of violations and breaches committed by the company, which was established in 2011 to operate Sector 14 of the oil sector in the Masila region, including the company’s overstepping of its basic tasks in developing the oil industry and moving towards other projects such as contracting and construction projects.

The reports showed a lack of transparency in the work carried out by the company, as all of its work programmes and annual budgets are not visible, and financial information is still withheld from the Ministry and the General Authority for Oil Exploration and Production until now.

The reports confirmed that the company was not subject to any control or supervision from the Ministry of Oil or the Central Agency for Control and Accounting, and that it did not submit any annual budget from an accredited auditing body during its 13-year period of operation.

According to these reports, the company has exceeded the scope of its operations specified in the establishment decision in Sector 14 to include other oil sectors, since the decision to establish PetroMasila Company does not authorize it to operate more than the sector for which it was established.

She reported that PetroMasila established a company in the Sultanate of Oman with a large capital and another in the Bahamas under different names, without any evidence that these companies are state-owned.

Among the violations included in these reports was that Petro Masila Company paid $7 million to purchase 15 percent of the contractor’s share in Sector No. (5) in exchange for bearing part of its financial obligations to the government and other parties, estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars, after the shareholder had offered it for free.

The report indicated that the attacks on state lands included public streets, reserving spaces in front of shops, and creating new buildings, hangars, kiosks, and commercial warehouses.