SAUDI ARABIA TO EXAMINE LATE CONTRACTOR PAYMENTS
Finance Minister Mohammed
Ali Abal-Khail said a committee will be set up to examine the
problem of late government payments to contractors and
companies operating in the kingdom.
    He told a working session on the first day of a
businessmen's conference yesterday that the committee, made up
of Finance Ministry and Chamber of Commerce officials, will be
formed shortly.
    He said the committee will also investigate disputes
between contractors and the government, but said the foreign
press had to some extent exaggerated payments problems.
    Abal-Khail said, "It is only natural that among those
thousands of contracts some problems perpetrated by disputes
over specifications, contractual obligations, project-handovers
and duration of contracts arose."
    Late payments, or in some cases total absence of payments,
have been a major source of concern for both the Saudi private
sector and foreign contractors operating in the kingdom.
    Businessmen said the minister's remarks were a rare
admission of problems in the contract sector and the first
concrete sign of government action to tackle payments delays.
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