Founder's murder, oil price fall wrote requiem for Saudi Oger

Thiruvananthapuram: The collapse of Saudi Oger, one of the leading construction firms in Saudi Arabia, reportedly began with the assassination of its founder. Things went from bad to worse with the falling oil prices.

Set up by former Lebanese premier and business tycoon Rafic Hariri in the 70s, it had grown to a 750 million Saudi Riyal firm, paying decently to its employees.

Ever since Mr Hariri's assassination on February 14, 2005, it was reportedly on the decline and the falling oil prices slowed down construction activities in the Kingdom and hit government payments.

“There were around 40,000 employees with the firm, and it even operated 4,500 buses to carry them from labour camps," recollects Kanhangad native Ullas Dastakar, who worked with Oger during 1996-2000.

Mr Harifi initially formed Ciconest and later on acquired Oger, which was a French construction firm involved in government works, including those of Saudi palaces.

There were even hearsay that many in Saudi government were also having stakes in Oger.

"Oger used to take care of its employees very well by providing all facilities like food and accommodation. Hence the employees were able to save the major chunk of wages," recollects Mr Dastakar, who is now settled here.

The assassination was linked to suspected funding of Syrian rebels. Though his son Saad Hariri took over the leadership, he was compelled to shift base to France in 2011 owing to legal issues.

Adding to the mismanagement of the firm after the death of Mr Hariri, the falling oil prices had hit payments from government deals. Over the last several months Oger was in the news for delayed salary payments.

Apart from Indians, there are a good number of Filipinos, Moroccans and French working in Oger.