HRDF comes in for severe criticism in Shoura

RIYADH: Members of the Shoura Council launched a scathing criticism of the Human Resources Development Fund, claiming the fund has spent hundreds of millions of riyals on studies and regulations pertaining to the fight against unemployment and providing jobs for Saudi men and women without any tangible results.

The Committee on Administration and Human Resources, in recommendations in its annual report of the fund on Tuesday, said the fund entrusted a neutral party to carry out comprehensive evaluation studies to monitor its achievements, objectives and compatibility with approved budgets, as well as qualifications of jobseekers and beneficiaries of Hafiz, the compatibility between training program outputs with pre-agreed objectives, and the length of time employees remain in their private sector jobs after being hired by the fund.
After introducing the report and the committee’s recommendations for discussion, council member Fahad bin Jomaa pointed out that the fund’s report does not include financial statements with revenues and expenses by the fund, while another member suggested the report does not clarify or explain the fund’s capital.
Another member emphasized the need for the report to include other important elements, such as challenges and obstacles the fund faces in carrying out its work and the fund’s proposals to overcome its obstacles.
One member pointed out that the fund focuses its efforts on training, a task shared with a number of other bodies and authorities, but does not exert enough effort in actual employment, according to the report.
“The fund exerts too much effort on studies and research, while the report does not display the real results of these studies,” said one member.
Out of a total of 13 programs, members criticized the fund’s ability to explain the reasons for not achieving their desired success, and questioned the benefit of the fund’s strategy for employment of Saudis.
They said the report does not clarify the number of dropouts from the fund’s initiatives and programs, despite the importance of this information to evaluate the fund’s work.