The Jeddah incident is an example, not an exception. It is expected that the reason that led to what happened in Jeddah is part of the structure of some governmental agencies, which contributed to the emergence of the problem, and the defect needs to be corrected in light of the directive of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques announced last year. In light of what happened and its repetition, it is expected that those responsible will be held accountable for their failure and inability to address the defect, and for their inability to achieve the ambition of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for reform.
Government agencies at all levels are employees of society to provide a public service, and in return society pays them salaries from public money. In the absence of accurate monitoring and accountability, society bears direct and indirect losses. Although these agencies serve society and achieve the sustainable development that members of society aspire to and pay them salaries for their work, some of these agencies destroy development and thus the economic and social stability of society with public money, which is the right of citizens. In addition to the above, what some of these agencies do leads to real direct losses that citizens bear from their own money, in addition to the disruption of development, and its impact on the economic growth of the non-oil sector, and the increase in economic costs at the macroeconomic level. Society has incurred huge losses as a result of the mistakes of these agencies, which have been repeated despite the official authorities announcing that they have been fully addressed. What happened is evidence of the absence of oversight and accountability of government agencies, and the safety of workers at all levels from legal prosecution.
The current situation raises a number of questions, the most important of which are: Who is responsible for these costs? Who will compensate for the direct and indirect losses incurred by the economy, individuals, companies and the local economy? What are the short- and long-term treatment mechanisms?
The short-term treatment mechanism requires publishing the results of the previous investigation, which King Abdullah announced the establishment of a fact-finding committee, and bringing the perpetrator, regardless of his position or status, to trial, because this is a public right. The reason for not treating the situation as expected must also be investigated, and those who were negligent must be held publicly accountable, and those who were negligent must bear the costs of their negligence, and those affected must be compensated.
In the long term, to address this huge defect, which is a clear indication of the weakness of real development and the prevalence of corruption in some government agencies, which must be addressed as soon as possible to achieve sustainable development through social oversight of their work. The absence of social oversight of the performance of these agencies, and their monopolization of work without any deterrent, has cost society as a whole huge costs. This situation calls for rethinking the mechanism by which government agencies operate, and the importance of having accurate oversight by third sector institutions (voluntary work) without government interference. In this regard, I propose establishing non-profit organizations in every city and region by the people and without government interference, provided that their budget is funded from the government budget, donations and gifts, and the people participate in them, and their work is announced to everyone, and any citizen has the right to participate and report errors or corruption of government agencies, provided that they submit their report and observations directly to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques at the end of each year. These bodies have the right to file cases directly before the judiciary without government permission, against entities that fail to perform their role, or that are proven to be corrupt and not performing their true role. To ensure that these bodies are open to all and not monopolized, every citizen has the right to file his case against government agencies through them. Establishing such a mechanism will contribute to organized collective monitoring of the performance of government agencies, and the entire society will become the King’s eye on the performance of these agencies to achieve the real development that everyone aspires to.