Economic consultant and head of “Saudi Scope” for economic studies and consultancy, researcher in the economics of entrepreneurial projects, Salem Al-Zamam confirmed that a group of non-specialized national and foreign offices and residents carry out feasibility studies and economic research for the public and private sector, adding, “It is mostly for the purpose of entering tenders for studies or for the purpose of providing feasibility study services to implement investment projects for government and non-governmental licensing and financing authorities by using the names and seals of unlicensed or licensed offices, whether with or without the knowledge of their owners, or their ignorance or with fake licenses”.
Zamamam added. “These studies are carried out through residents inside the Kingdom and from abroad, through the phenomenon of visiting residents, through employees of institutions, companies, accounting, auditing, legal, administrative, financial, engineering and even commentary, translation, advertising and translation offices with or without the knowledge of their owners, as well as through international offices based on legal accounting and internal auditing, which are far from the vision, mission and objectives of national economic development plans, concepts of value-added projects, consumer behavior and culture and society.”
Zamam added: “These studies are done through residents inside the Kingdom and from abroad. ”These groups use advertisements in newspapers, magazines and business forums to market them as specialized professional competencies, in addition to using marketing from inside and outside the Kingdom, after obtaining clients who are tricked into applying on their behalf and following up and ensuring that they obtain a license or financing.“
Al-Zamam said. <However, Al-Zamam said that when the study is implemented and after they submit it to the funding bodies and receive the costs of their work, they withdraw, only to discover that the study does not meet professional standards and needs to be corrected or eventually leads to the failure of the project, while at the same time reviewing the reasons for this phenomenon, attributing the reasons to the lack of regulation and circulation of the official authorities that the tasks of feasibility studies and economic research should be limited only to national economic consulting offices, adding ”we find that administrative, financial, engineering, industrial and service consulting offices, legal accounting, and law firms are open to do this task. <According to Al-Zamam, at the level of national economic security, the implementation of inaccurate, misleading and unprofessional studies on which national economic investment decisions are based and do not take into account the state's development plans and thus the failure of development projects for which the state spent billions to support them, especially small, medium and entrepreneurial projects, which is a major direction for the state to achieve the desired and planned economic growth, operations to collect funds of unknown uses for foreign groups whose direction is unknown, fraud, fraud, forgery and disregard for the systems and resources of the country, Saudi businessmen and related authorities, harassment of consulting offices. <Al-Zamam suggested that the authorities should activate their respective roles in protecting the profession, reviewing a set of proposals and recommendations, and that they do not need to form committees, forums and bureaucratic red tape, which is generally a mechanism that the Saudi Economic Association should adopt and take the initiative to reorganize the economic consulting profession, as the other offices described are eating the body of this profession by encroaching on its specialization and closing the loophole in the system. He stressed that the proposals may be opposed by non-specialized offices, adding, “due to the nature of their conflict with their own interests without taking into account the first consideration of the legal right to claim them from economic offices and their conflict with the requirements of economic development plans and economic security.”
<He said that there are fundamental and important measures to ensure that the loopholes are closed and this dangerous loophole is closed, which is primarily for reasons of economic and professional security that must work to impose them from the legislative authorities and the relevant authorities. <He said that the Saudi Authority for Economic Consultants should either transform the Saudi Economics Association into a body and activate its role as a professional reference similar to the Saudi Accountants Authority in adopting such a paper as well as the recommendations of all previous forums and follow up all concerned parties in implementing the recommendations or initiate the establishment of a special Saudi body for Saudi economic consultants affiliated with the Ministry of Commerce, whose goal is to protect and activate the role of the profession, and that the Ministry of Commerce, when legislating, should define and limit the tasks of the economic consultant profession to economic consulting offices, most notably feasibility studies and business plans, which are the most prominent of the economic consultants. <“The minimum requirements for licensing the profession of economic consultant must be raised, and the issuance of licenses must be tightened,“ he added. ”The Ministry of Commerce must approve legislation requiring the certification of feasibility studies in the first place from a licensed national office that is circulated to all parties that require a feasibility study, whether for licensing, financing, establishment, transfer, etc.“ A circular from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to all relevant parties to request economic feasibility studies Issuing a circular from the Ministry of Industry and Trade to all entities related to requesting economic feasibility studies, whether for licensing, financing, establishment, establishment, transfer, etc., and issuing a circular from the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to all entities related to requesting economic feasibility studies from a national economic consulting office with a valid license and ratified by the Chamber of Commerce, wondering at the same time about the difference between the requirement and ratification of a budget from a legal accounting office and not ratifying a feasibility study from a national economic consulting office.
”The Ministry of Finance should be requested to circulate to all funding and licensing entities, including institutions, funds, authorities, governmental and semi-governmental banks, and private funding entities that feasibility studies must be approved and certified by a licensed national economic consulting firm.“
He added. ”We must adopt and allocate special work visas for researchers, economists and statisticians for national consulting offices, instead of relying on collaborators, whether they are academics or employees of other sectors on a part-time basis,“ he added, stressing their abject failure, pointing out that most government sectors themselves complain about the lack of qualified national competencies in the specialization of researchers, economists and statisticians, saying, ”We find that most occupants of these jobs in the government and semi government sector are non-Saudis," stressing the need to bring rare professional expertise and localize it.
Al-Zamamam stressed the need to import and localize rare professional expertise.
<Al-Zamam stressed the need to legislate and issue a decision (from the requirements of funding, licensing or governmental, semi-governmental and private sector tenders from funds, banks, institutions, charitable and cooperative societies) to require a national economic consulting license To require a national economic consulting license with matching the original and certification from the Chamber of Commerce to avoid using copies of fake licenses or licenses, stressing the need to move to follow up on these groups in preparation for their confinement and detection of their suspicious activities.
(( Riyadh Newspaper ))
