The real role of government agencies is to provide the best possible services that positively reflect on the economic well-being of the citizen. The defect in the service provided and its lack of connection to the citizen’s well-being constitutes a burden on the local economy and an economic loss that the citizen pays the price for. Therefore, the role of the government as a whole must be to achieve the economic well-being of the citizen. Accordingly, the quality and suitability of any service or system put into effect is measured by its ability to maximize the economic well-being of the citizen. In order for this lofty goal to be achieved and for these agencies to perform their assigned role in serving the citizen, the systems, laws and decisions issued by them and the services they provide, which are approved by the higher authorities, must be measured by their real impact on the economic well-being of the citizen. To know the economic effects of any decision on economic well-being, the relevant agency is concerned with a comprehensive study of the direct and indirect effects of the decision on all economic variables that affect the citizen and measuring their effects at the macroeconomic level.
Unfortunately, most government agencies in the Kingdom work to achieve the highest possible benefits for the agency in a competitive race between government agencies, the citizen who is primarily targeted by the service sometimes falls victim to it. Most government agencies do not work as part of a government system whose services are integrated to achieve the highest possible returns for the citizen. Rather, you find most of these agencies working individually to achieve the immediate interests of the government agency itself, far from achieving the general goal, even if they claim otherwise. Sometimes the services provided by these agencies conflict with the general strategy of the country. When the General Investment Authority reduces the capital required for foreign investment; so that it can achieve precedence in the World Bank’s evaluation, although we do not need capital as much as we need technology and its localization, to allow foreigners to compete with Saudis in small projects adopted by the poverty treatment strategy as one of the solutions to poverty announced by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and also conflicts with the Saudization policy adopted by the government as one of the mechanisms for treating unemployment among Saudis, this is undoubtedly a clear conflict with the government’s strategy to treat poverty and pump billions into the relevant funds to lend to citizens.
The inefficient performance of government agencies in providing services or issuing decisions that affect citizens without studying the relationship of these decisions to the welfare of citizens and studying them at the overall level leads to a negative impact on citizens from two aspects. First, an increase in the costs of providing services by these agencies and burdening the local economy with additional costs by providing services at higher costs than necessary and at a poor level. Second, the increase in the risks faced by investors; which is reflected in the calculation of the return and requires that the private sector raise the acceptable return in this sector to be equal to the risks or the flight of funds from this sector to other economic sectors; due to the low return compared to the risks faced by the private sector with these agencies. The bureaucratic complexities faced by real estate developers in the Kingdom with the secretariats and municipalities of cities and the delay in obtaining the required licenses, which often exceed a full year, and the lack of clarity of vision of the secretariats in dealing with real estate developers are reflected in the economic costs borne by real estate developers and the risks they face; Which led to raising the required return to be equal to the risks faced by real estate developers or the flight of funds from real estate development to other less complex sectors or to buying and selling away from the actual development of the land. This negative performance in the service by the secretariats paid its cost to the citizen through the high cost of the service provided to him by the private sector and the rise in prices to reflect the reality of costs and risks.
In light of the current situation, the Saudi economy needs an entity that determines the correct direction for these sectors; to work according to a mechanism to maximize economic welfare without the efforts of each entity separately, and this effort is often wrong. The Ministry of Economy and Planning is the entity that is supposed to play this role, but its performance has not risen to the level of meeting the requirements of the local economy in assisting and following up on government agencies to ensure the achievement of economic welfare; therefore, the Supreme Economic Council may constitute an appropriate mechanism for the actual supervision of the economic performance of government agencies and assisting them in providing the service and setting systems that achieve economic welfare in its comprehensive concept. However, to achieve this goal, the Supreme Economic Council needs to have a distinguished studies and research department that contributes to conducting the necessary studies and evaluating the performance of government agencies. It may be appropriate to abolish the Ministry of Economy and Planning and attach it as a research department to the Supreme Economic Council.