In a public lecture in Asharqia Chamber yesterday.
Behind
every serious commercial fraud a worse commercial cover up.
The
Ministry of Trade and Investment stressed the high level of awareness among
citizens and government agencies in the fight against the phenomenon of
commercial cover up referring to the
increase of the reports to the ministry
about the phenomenon, pointing to the presence of 12 economic and security
impact caused by this phenomenon, which he described as "serious".
This
was in a lecture held in Asharqia Chamber on Wednesday, February 15,
2017 under the title (the risk and damage of the commercial coverup) presented
by the deputy general director of commercial cover up the Ministry of Trade and
Investment Fahd Al Salamah, said that
the cover up is that the "non Saudi who works for his own account enables
the Saudi or foreign investor, whether it is through the use of his name or
license or commercial record or any other way), noting that Saudi Arabia is not
entitled to a system that works for his own account,
He
said that there are cases show that foreign investors have exercised cover up
once getting the investment license, and fell in violation of the law, and some
cases of empowerment are at the initiative of the foreign worker himself
without the knowledge of the Saudi sponsor or the foreign investor, for example
The teacher tutoring works for his own account in the off duty time, and this
is a violation of the laws of the Ministry of Labor, as well as the cases such
as a driver working as plumber is contrary to the regulations of the Ministry
of Labor, and the phenomenon has nothing to cover up.
He
pointed that the ministry dealing with the reports very seriously and has its
ways to make sure of the cover up process. He explained that the reporting center
in the ministry received in 2014 about 456 reports, to 1565 reports in 2015 and
to 2537 reports in the past year, also the reports
to the ministry directly from various
government agencies, which confirms the high level of awareness among the
citizens to fight this phenomenon, in addition to the high level of cooperation
between the Ministry of trade and investment and other government agencies such
as the Ministry of labor, Ministry of Interior, and the Ministry of Justice,
pointing that some of the reports offers related documents, and some are
malicious and untrue, and our part in the ministry to deal with the report as a report and we have our ways to make sure that it is
correct, and if found malicious we take the issue to the public prosecution.
He
said that the ministry efforts in pursuing cases of cover up in the last year
(1437), the Ministry (10,493), some
under the reports and some of them the result of normal inspections on cases of
cover up, and big legal violations.
The
economic effect he mentioned a number of effects, including commercial fraud,
there is no fraud business, without a commercial
cover up, especially in trade activity and marketing of cars parts, that the
greatest effects is the amount of
foreign outside money transfers, which amounted to 2015 about 156 billion
riyals, and we find that a
big proportion of them as a result of a commercial cover up by the non Saudis
accounts we find that the average salary for a foreign worker does not exceed
1.187 Saudi riyals, and the number of non Saudi workers in the range of
8,212,782 workers, this is a huge percentage that confirms this fact.
Turning
to the ministry procedures to fight the
phenomenon begins by receiving reports
completing the evidence to apply the inspection and then the prosecution, to
determine the evidence, and in the case of certainty there are fines imposed of up to a million riyals or stopping the
activity, or libel or prison, and excluding the non Saudi. He
explained that the ministry gives financial rewards of up to 30% of the value
of the fine imposed on the person covering up and we have given a Saudi citizen
135,000 rials, and other Jordanian resident 200 thousand riyals, the ministry
is encouraging the reporters and is keen to give evidence.
He said that the main causes of covering up
is the goodwill of some citizens and their hesitation to report, and concluded by saying
that the ministry intersect with other mutual efforts, by the citizens who have
to know what is good for them and benefit their country and hurt them and hurt the country and
its economy.. stressing that not every citizen and not every resident is covering
up.
At
the end of the lecture the guest was honored with a memorial shield.
