Kuwait’s top judicial body has handed down a five-year prison term to a government employee who continued receiving monthly pay for 10 years despite not reporting for duty, marking one of the country’s most forceful rulings against salary fraud in the public sector.
The decision from the court of cassation overturned earlier judgments from both the criminal court and the court of appeal, which had cleared the defendant. The higher court ruled that the previous acquittals were erroneous after reviewing evidence that showed the man had been absent from his job for an entire decade while still drawing full compensation.
Court documents show that the employee, assigned to the citizens’ service department, kept receiving salary deposits long after he stopped performing his responsibilities. The irregular payments eventually triggered an investigation, with authorities accusing him of unlawful enrichment and misuse of public funds.
As part of the ruling, the court ordered him to reimburse KD104,000 — the amount he had collected — and imposed an additional financial penalty equal to twice that figure. The total sum he must pay now amounts to KD312,000. He was also dismissed from government service, according to Al Qabas Arabic daily.
The cassation court said the evidence proved the man’s lengthy absence and unjustified receipt of state money, leading judges to set aside the lower courts’ decisions.
