Saudi Arabia's King Salman gives citizens an extra two months' salary
Date January 30, 2015 - 7:37PM
Tom Decent
King Salman attends a ceremony with world leaders after the death of his predecessor King Abdullah. Photo: Reuters
Less than a week after assuming the throne, Saudi Arabia's new king has given all state employees a bonus two months' salary and reshuffled top government jobs, firing two sons of his predecessor in the process.
The move has helped King Salman consolidate power even further, a week after succeeding his brother Abdullah - who played a guiding role in Saudi Arabia's support for Egypt's government after the military intervened in 2012 and who drove his country's support for Syria's rebellion against President Bashar al-Assad.
On Thursday, King Salman made the call to give two months' pay to all state employees and pensions to retired government workers during a series of decrees he read aloud on state television.
It is a move which has been warmly accepted by citizens, happy they have a sixth more of their annual salary in their back pocket.
"Dear people: You deserve more and whatever I do will not be able to give you what you deserve," King Salman wrote on his official Twitter account.
The man leading the world's largest country of oil exports also asked citizens to not forget him in their prayers.
King Salman's shake up affects mostly government jobs but he has kept in place the oil, defence, finance and interior ministers.
Meanwhile, he has controversially removed two of the late king's sons from large jobs. Instead, Faisal bin Bandar Riyadh will replace Turki bin Abdullah as governor, while Khaled al-Faisal will be reinstated as Mecca governor.
King Salman has named one of his sons, Prince Mohammad bin Salman, as president of the Council of Economic and Development Affairs.
Among others to be let go were the top officials from the Ports Authority, the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the conservative Islamic kingdom's religious police.
The swift and momentous changes in some of the country's most powerful posts suggests King Salman has reformatted the domestic power structure to give himself more control.
Many of the changes were associated with the abolition of government bodies, including oversight councils for education, oil and other issues.
Much has been been made over whether King Salman, who is aged 79, has been given too much power, given his predecessors were older.
With New York Times and Reuters
