Shoura slams Statistics Agency

In a recent session, Shoura Council members criticized the Ministry of Civil Service and the Statistics Agency for not having a clear plan for creating job opportunities for Saudi women.
The Shoura members said that the Statistics Agency was not providing accurate figures on the number of unemployed women, creating confusion in chalking out a plan to increase their numbers in the work force.
Shoura member Abdulziz Al-Harqan said that transport allowances for female employees in the government sector are unfair, arguing that women in the Kingdom do not drive and are forced to employ private drivers which means the transport allowance should be doubled. He also said that women should be exempted from paying the visa fees when recruiting drivers.
Shoura member Khaled Al-Awad said the Statistics Agency suffers from a systematically flawed approach leading to incorrect indicators of Saudi Arabia’s living standards, family spending and housing expenses which raises a lot of questions on all areas of planning in the Kingdom.
Saeed Al-Sheikh said that it was impractical to apply the GDP statistics of 1999 when a barrel of oil cost $20. He added that these figures would not help in assessing the current situation accurately or provide correct information about the economic diversification of the Kingdom. He suggested that calculations should instead be based on the inflation figures of 2007.
The agency, on the other hand, reiterated that it suffers from a lack of specialized personnel in the field of statistics.