Terms and Conditions for Certified Monitor Rewards: 7 New Regulations from the Ministry of Municipalities
In a regulatory move aimed at enhancing community oversight, the Ministry of Municipalities and Housing in Saudi Arabia, through its "Baladi" program, announced seven strict criteria for eligibility for financial rewards allocated to those reporting municipal violations under the "Certified Monitor" initiative. This step comes as part of the Ministry's ongoing efforts to improve the urban landscape and engage the community in preserving the public environment.
Context of the initiative and the goals of Vision 2030
The “Certified Monitor” initiative falls within the broader national efforts to achieve the goals of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, specifically the “Quality of Life” program, which focuses heavily on eliminating visual pollution and improving the overall appearance of Saudi cities. Community participation is a cornerstone of this strategy, transforming citizens and residents from mere service recipients into active partners in monitoring and development. These new regulations have been introduced to organize this process and ensure that reports are genuinely valuable and effectively contribute to addressing shortcomings.
Eligibility requirements and mandatory training
The ministry clarified that the primary criterion for awarding the reward is that the report directly and effectively leads to the detection and substantiation of a genuine violation. To ensure the quality of these reports, the ministry stipulated a crucial requirement: the whistleblower must complete the accredited training program designed specifically for whistleblowers. This training aims to equip whistleblowers with the necessary knowledge of municipal regulations and bylaws, thereby reducing false reports and increasing the accuracy of monitoring.
Integrity and prevention of conflicts of interest
In keeping with the principles of transparency and integrity, the regulations have established a comprehensive ban prohibiting the disbursement of bonuses to specific categories of individuals who may have a conflict of interest. This ban includes:
- Ministry, secretariat, and municipal staff.
- Employees of monitoring and inspection companies contracted with municipal authorities.
- First-degree relatives of the aforementioned employees.
This measure is intended to ensure that the initiative is purely community-based, and to close the door to any exploitation of influence or inside information for personal gain.
Additional controls to ensure credibility
The new regulations emphasize the importance of a clean reporting record for whistleblowers, requiring it to be completely free of any previous malicious or fabricated reports. The ministry also stressed that the reported violation must not have been fabricated to obtain a reward, nor have been previously reported by other entities, in order to prevent duplicate reports of the same offense.
The ministry concluded its explanation by stating that the disbursement mechanism requires submitting an official request within a specific time period, after the violation has acquired its final status and the legal period available to the violator to object has expired, calling on everyone to contribute consciously and responsibly to enhance the quality of life in Saudi cities.
