Kuwait's ministry fast-tracks salary control to address overspending

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KUWAIT CITY - The Financial Affairs Sector in the Ministry of Education has asked the salary departments in the educational districts to “quickly complete procedures related to salary deduction and salary payment suspension in order to avoid the observations of supervisory authorities,” reports Al-Rai daily.

In a letter addressed to the heads of the salary departments, Budget and Accounts Controller in the sector Youssef Dakhil Allah emphasized the need to instruct the concerned employees to fully abide by this directive; along with the strict implementation of the systems and regulations on delivering and receiving transactions through certified mail, not by hand, in order to avoid losses or delays.

The State Audit Bureau (SAB) recorded an observation that the ministry lacks control over the salary disbursement mechanism; considering it disbursed around KD191,895,000 salaries from October 2023 to March 2024 without settling them at the end of fiscal 2023/2024, which is considered overspending in the budget and it entails that the financial statements of the ministry are inaccurate.

SAB also recorded the unjustified disbursement of some amounts in previous fiscal years and the subsequent deduction from the employees’ salaries -- around KD4,838,000 recorded in the recovered revenues-expenses account in the budget for fiscal 2023/2024.

The bureau underscored the need for the ministry to “tighten control over salary disbursement to avoid unjust payments, which inflate the revenues of the fiscal year under review; leading to an increase in the expenses for previous fiscal years.”

The bureau revealed that the weak internal control procedures in all departments in charge of employee and fi- nancial affairs, and the failure to activate the automated link between the educational districts and head office of the ministry resulted in the unlawful disbursement of salaries amounting to KD972,000 during the aforementioned fiscal year. It asserted that the illegally disbursed salaries and allowances are recorded as debts; hence, the need to tighten control over salaries and activate the automated link to protect public funds.