All employees of "Nazaha" deserve thanks to His Highness, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud – may God protect him – for their efforts in combating corruption.
We Saudis deserve to rejoice in the anniversary of the mandate of the Covenant of the Prince of Law, Vision and the Future, so that it will be a good greeting for us and the Muslims.
All thanks and appreciation to the Competition Authority for its efforts, which recently culminated in announcing and defaming cement companies in accordance with the system regarding similar violations of some companies when they set a price ceiling in the market for vital products such as rice and some foodstuffs.
What is dangerous in this case is that the companies are public shareholding companies, which necessitates the movement of all concerned authorities to intervene, such as the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, the Central Bank, Nazaha, the Public Prosecution and the Capital Market Authority, each according to its competence, to punish anyone who is found guilty, covered up, or participated in this crime, whether from Members of boards of directors, senior executives and members of the relevant internal committees, down to sales and marketing representatives in those companies, provided that accounting also includes members of the support departments in those companies such as financial and legal, as well as legal and financial advisory offices in the event that their involvement or knowledge of these crimes is proven.
The decision of the Competition Authority came after the investigation and research procedures were completed and evidence collected that supports the companies’ violation of the provisions of the system, given that this authority has the capacity of judicial control and has the right to enter the establishments’ sites and offices during normal working hours and to review their books and documents and take copies of them according to an official report signed by the employees. It has the right of proof by all methods of proof, including electronic data issued by the computer, telephone, fax and e-mail records, according to the system that stipulates that the establishment may not block any information, hide any documents, or destroy them. Whoever colluded with society, public money, and the public interest, and disrupted development and its sustainability in order to achieve personal profits and gains for individuals, whether employees, managers, or owners of shares and shares in those companies that are defamed.
Members of boards of directors and members of internal committees must be prevented and removed from their positions for life, and the private sector must be prevented from employing them in companies or running for similar or other committees in public shareholding companies, and obligating them to jointly and with their own money to compensate society for the damages caused to it as a result of their conspiracy and presence
in public joint stock companies; In order to preserve the financial market and the money of individuals and society.
The legislative authority should amend laws to impose severe penalties for these economic crimes in public shareholding companies.
I wish that an emergency general assembly be held for all companies to put confidence in the boards of directors or its members whose knowledge, participation, or concealment of these violations is proven, and that the Ministry of Commerce and the Accountants Association punish the financial offices if it is proven that they are aware of the violations, and that the Ministry of Justice and the Bar Association punish regular representatives, internal legal advisors and offices Lawyer for those who prove their knowledge or participation in these violations.
We have to review the reality of governance in public shareholding companies and that it is not a fictitious, fictitious or paper governance. Every year, the society of promoting integrity, transparency, combating corruption and preventing monopoly is well.
Majid Qaroub