Minister For Planning And Development Affairs Refers Social Support Files For Probe

Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, the State Minister for Planning and Development Affairs Hind Al-Sabeeh has referred to the Prosecutor General for necessary legal procedures all files concerning suspicious social support to pave way for investigating allegations of criminal acts in that regard. The action has frustrated public outcry over the alleged violations concerning social support, which became a burden on the Ministry of Social Affairs.

In a statement, Al-Sabeeh declared the files were referred for investigation in a letter titled “Reporting suspicious crime regarding social support files at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor”. She noted the ministry realized the files were fraught with administrative violations during a verification exercise. She also said some employees of the ministry attached to the Family Welfare Unit were found wanting in performing their duties and failed to recover some wrongly-disbursed funds, indicating the act was detrimental to public funds.

She explained the letter contained information on the effect of disciplinary actions taken against some of employees. She pointed out the employees in question violated Article 14 of Public Fund Protection Law No. 1/1993, which is applicable to every public employee or worker who causes an error that affects public funds or safety of the work place, other people’s money and interest. “The employee shall be liable to temporary jail term not exceeding three years with a minimum or maximum fine of KD 3,000 or KD 20,000 respectively, or either of the two penalties if the error was due to negligence, lackluster attitude or abuse of authority inside or outside the country”.

The penalty entails at least three years jail term with a minimum of KD 20,000 or maximum of KD 100,000 fine if the case is so severe that it affects the country’s financial, commercial and economic status or the national interest.

The latter is also applicable if the crime is committed in the course of a war, and the court must remove the employee from his post if convicted. She revealed some serving and retired assistant undersecretaries, directors, supervisors and heads of departments in various sectors of the ministry will be prosecuted for financial misappropriation from 1994 until date in order to ascertain their roles in the failed retrieval of KD 10.4 million. She declared the Public Prosecution Department has every right to investigate the crime in line with Article 9, Paragraph 1 of Legal Procedures and Criminal Prosecution Law.

 

SOURCE : ARABTIMES

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