Article 4 of the Saudi Endowments Authority Law

This article sets the scope of the Authority's oversight, in two paragraphs:

Paragraph 1: the Authority oversees all endowments: public, private (family) and joint. But this oversight is "as provided in paragraph (5) of Article 5," which is the paragraph that sets the supervisory oversight of the work of supervisors, without entering into the work of supervision, by the following means:

• Reviewing the annual accounting reports on endowments.
• Providing technical and information support to supervisors.
• Providing financial and administrative advice that does not violate the endower's condition.
• Assigning a representative to attend meetings of the general assembly, or of the boards of directors of endowments that have no general assemblies, when the endowment's annual financial report is considered.
• Requesting a change of the external auditor.
• Bringing a case before the courts, if necessary, to remove a supervisor who fails to achieve the endowment's objectives or loses one of the conditions of supervision.

Paragraph 2: the Authority oversees the work of supervisors appointed by endowers, but subject to three limits: within what the laws require, without violating the endowers' conditions, and without this entering into the work of supervision itself.

In practice this means a supervisor appointed by the endower remains the one who makes the supervision decisions, and the Authority is a monitor of the supervisor, not a replacement. Anyone who is a supervisor or beneficiary and believes the Authority has exceeded these limits, or that the supervisor has failed, would do best to consult a lawyer specializing in endowment cases.