The Digest:
A civil servant in Kuwait has been sentenced to five years in prison and fined $1 million for collecting a salary for 10 years without reporting to work.
Key Points
- The employee worked in the citizens’ service department but was absent for a decade.
- Salaries continued to be deposited monthly until the irregularity was uncovered.
- He was convicted of unlawful enrichment and abuse of public funds.
- Earlier acquittals by two courts were overturned by Kuwait’s court of cassation.
- He was ordered to repay $339,000 in salaries plus double that amount as a penalty.
- Kuwaiti media described it as one of the strongest anti-corruption rulings in recent years.
- The case reflects intensified efforts to combat salary fraud in the public sector.
In a system where accountability often drifts, this verdict strikes like lightning, a stark warning that even the quietest frauds cannot outrun the storm of justice.
Sources: Kuwaiti Court of Cassation, Al Qabas Newspaper,
