Saudi social media help Nazaha fight corruption

Nazaha President Khaled bin Abdulmohsen Al-Muhaisen signs a memorandum of understanding with an official of the International Anti-Corruption Academy in Alkhobar on Friday.

ALKHOBAR: Khaled bin Abdulmohsen Al-Muhaisen, president of Nazaha, the anti-corruption organization, said at a forum held here that social media helped the group receive more than 5,000 reports from citizens of potential incidents of corruption.
The forum was held to coincide with International Anti-Corruption Day on Friday.
He said an electronic application on smart handheld devices allowed Nazaha to receive reports and the interactive account on the social network Twitter to receive inquiries, suggestions and feedback.
“As a result of this partnership and cooperation with citizens and residents, the body received more than 5,000 reports and all were addressed according to jurisdiction and the regulatory procedures,” Al-Muhaisen said.
Al-Muhaisen said Nazaha will launch a service — “Qayem” or “Evaluate” — via the electronic application “Nazaha” to evaluate the performance of the reporting service functions of the organization. The application is aimed at measuring the level of integrity, transparency and the satisfaction of users of the app.
He also said a webpage will be launched dedicated to 43 Nazaha clubs at educational institutions to evaluate the integrity and corruption in the Kingdom through studies and research, collection of reports, statistics and information from the regulators.
He said that Nazaha had introduced a program to follow up on the major development projects in the Kingdom to ensure their implementation.
“In that sense, Nazaha monitored 161 development projects at an estimated value of more than SR223 billion ($59.4 billion),” he said.
He also said Nazah sought to raise the level of cooperation and partnership at the international level through signing memorandums of understanding with several anticorruption agencies, including with the Egyptian Administrative Control Authority.
“This week, the body will sign a memorandum of understanding with Indonesia’s Corruption Eradication Commission,” he said. “Nazaha also will sign a memorandum of understanding with the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA), in addition to creating projects in cooperation with other competent bodies for the exchange of experience and capacity building in the anti-corruption issues.”