An op-ed in Arab News calls current Saudi efforts to thwart corruption inadequate. The writer points out that even following a Royal Decree and the establishment of a Royal Commission to address corruption, it continues. The problem, she says, is that the measures taken so far only call for people to behave properly. If they thought it in their interest to behave properly, corruption wouldn’t be happening in the first place. What’s needed is stronger words, stronger punishments, stricter implementation of existing regulations, and more participation by citizens to report it.

Opinion: ‘Together against corruption’
FATIN BUNDAGJI

For those of you who are familiar with local news, the issue of corruption has become commonplace.

If you don’t read about it in media outlets, you will infer it through the Jeddah Floods… And if you can’t infer it, then you probably experience it in your occasional interaction with public institutions as and when you need their service.

Corrupt and unethical behavior is so entrenched in our system that we actually need a royal decree to combat it. And ironically enough, even this highest mandate commissioned to eradicate corruption “once and for all” seems impotent against its spread.
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