Ministry of Education officials have been allegedly involved in paying themselves bonuses when none are warranted, in some cases for more than a year, Kuwaiti media reported.
The Minister of Education and Higher Education, Dr. Saud Al Harbi, referred the matter to the Public Prosecution to reveal the cause of this crime and prosecute those involved, Al Qabas reported.
Al Harbi assigned the acting undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, Dr. Bader Bajad and the Assistant Undersecretary for Financial Affairs Youssef Al Najjar to review all salaries and bonuses for teachers and employees in the ministry’s headquarters, educational districts, and all departments.
The sources confirmed that the ministry started the procedures for counting the funds that were unlawfully disbursed, estimated at thousands of dinars to recover the money and taking legal action against those who got the money unwarranted. The minister also asked to explore the system of work in the financial management and review the procedures and powers of the officials and accountants, and to bring to account any wrongdoers.
The audit work until now showed that the payroll system was illegally accessed to increase the salaries of two cases. The first of a Kuwaiti employee in administrative affairs who received a salary bonus of KD 1,500 dinars, per month from April 2019 until April 2020, and the second case is also a Kuwaiti employee, working in the Private Education Department, who received a bonus of 800 dinars to her monthly salary from September 2019 until May 2020
