When is a public employee considered bribed and what is the penalty for bribery in the Saudi system?
What is meant by bribery in the anti-bribery system is the request, acceptance or taking of a public employee a benefit for himself or for others in exchange for performing a work from his job, abstaining from his performance, or for breaching his job duties, whether this work is part of his job or claims that it is part of his job.
A public employee is a person who, pursuant to a decision from the competent authority, occupies one of the jobs subject to the provisions of the employee’s provisions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The following is considered as a public employee in applying the provisions of the anti-bribery system:
1- Everyone who works for the state or one of the agencies with public legal personality, whether he works permanently or temporarily.
2- The arbitrator or expert appointed by the government or any body with judicial competence.
3- Any person assigned by a government agency or any other administrative authority to perform a specific task.
4- Everyone who works for companies or individual institutions that manage and operate public facilities or maintain them or carry out public service, as well as everyone who works for joint stock companies and companies whose capital the government contributes to its capital and companies or individual institutions that engage in banking business, as well as heads and members Boards of directors of these companies.
5- Employees and members of non-governmental organizations of public interest, chairmen and members of their boards of directors.
6- The employees of international institutions and organizations in relation to conducting international business.
The system stipulated for the crime of bribery that the bribed person be a public servant or the like, and in addition to that, it also stipulated that the public employee be competent to work or to refrain from the work required to be investigated or to claim that he is competent in return for what he receives.
In the following, we will explain when a public employee is considered bribed and what is the penalty for bribery in the Saudi system?
Every public servant shall be deemed to be a public servant who requests for himself or for others, or accepts or takes a promise or gift to perform a work from his position, or claims that it is part of his job even if such work is legitimate.
Every public servant shall be deemed to be bribed, who asks for himself or for others, or accepts or takes a promise or gift to abstain from a work from the work of his position, or claims that it is part of his job even if such abstinence is legitimate.
Every public servant shall be deemed to have been bribed by himself or by others, or who accepted or took a promise or gift for breaching the duties of his position or to reward him for what he had signed even if that was without prior agreement.
Every public official is considered to be bribed, who requests for himself or others or accepts or takes a promise or gift to use real or alleged influence to obtain or attempt to obtain from any public authority a work, order, decision, commitment, license, supply agreement, job, service, or benefit from what kind.
The employee shall be punished in the previous cases with imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years and a fine not exceeding one million riyals or either of these two penalties, and the occurrence of the crime shall not affect the employee’s intention not to perform the work he was promised.
The bribe-taker shall be deemed to be every public employee who breaches the duties of his position by undertaking or abstaining from an act from the work of that position as a result of a request, recommendation or mediation.
In this case, he shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding three years and a fine not exceeding one hundred thousand riyals, or either of these two penalties.
The anti-bribery law has made it clear that if any of these cases does not apply to every public employee who requests for himself or for others or accepts or takes a promise or gift due to his job to follow up on a transaction in a government agency, he shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years and a fine not exceeding fifty thousand riyals or one These two punishments, and the same penalty shall be imposed on whoever gives, offers, or promises of the gift for the purpose referred to, as well as the mediator in any of these cases.
The briber, the mediator, and anyone who participates in one of these crimes shall be punished with the penalty prescribed for the crime, and whoever agrees, instigates, or assists in the commission of the crime with his knowledge of this shall be deemed an accomplice when the crime is committed based on this agreement, incitement or assistance.
Likewise, every person appointed by the bribe-taker or the briber to take the bribe, and before that, with knowledge of the reason, shall be punished with imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years and a fine not exceeding fifty thousand riyals or either of these two penalties.
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– Being bribed
– Exemption from punishment for the briber
– Punishment for the crime of bribery in Saudi Arabia
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