Workers salaries tampered with as graft scandal rears head in Kuwait's Education Ministry

KUWAIT CITY - The Ministry of Education has discovered a fraud related to tampering with the salaries of employees by using the ‘user name’ and password of the former director of Financial Administration while she was the payroll director before assuming her new position in 2019.

According to sources until now the auditors have discovered that the director’s user name and password were used to increase the salaries in two cases. The first was for a Kuwaiti employee working in the administrative affairs department. She received a raise in her salary of 1,500 from April 2019 until April 2020.

Private
The second case is also for a Kuwaiti employee working in the administration of private education. She was given a raise of 800 dinars in her monthly salary from September 2019 until May 2020. The Minister of Education the Minister of Higher Education Dr Saud Al-Harbi has referred the matter to the Public Prosecution for the purpose of detecting and prosecuting the perpetrator of this crime.

The sources expect new discoveries to be made over the next few days after reviewing the salaries of all employees. The sources indicated 3 officials working for in the finance section are under the microscope and investigations by the Public Prosecution will reveal the truth and the number of manipulations and manipulators.

Senior sources stated that Al-Harbi has assigned the acting Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, Dr Badr Badjad and the Assistant Undersecretary for Financial Affairs Yousef Al-Najjar to run a check on the salaries and rewards paid to all teachers and employees in the Ministry’s General Office and educational districts and all departments affiliated with the Ministry of Education, in addition to tracking the director user name and verifying the numbers of discovered cases.

The sources confirmed the Ministry is looking at all money that has been disbursed ‘unlawfully’ and ‘illegally’ believed to be in thousands of dinars and will set a method to recover what has been illegally taken. Al-Harbi also asked to explore the mechanism of work in the financial administration and review the procedures and validity of user names especially for officials and accountants, and punish anyone if found guilty.

The fraud was allegedly discovered by one of the accountants and informed the head of the department, who in turn informed his superiors until the matter reached the Undersecretary who presented a full report on the results of the investigations to the Minister, who in turn ordered to refer the file to the Public Prosecution.

The sources emphasized that the preliminary information confirms that the User Name of the Finance Director was used in the name of a Jordanian female teacher who receives a salary of 510 dinars, and that there are no increases in her account.

The sourced affirmed the existence of another suspicion of corruption under investigation in another sector and it is expected that the file will be referred to the prosecution also over the next few days.

The sources pointed out that the Minister of Education is taking all necessary measures to find the truth and when it comes to the directors of departments if anyone of them is found guilty will be held accountable and will be referred to the Public Prosecution