OVER 5,000 FAMILIES SUSPECTED OF FRAUD – Probe into social security scam

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KUWAIT CITY, May 10: Kuwait has launched a probe into a suspected scam involving 5,324 families accused of faking documents to obtain government social security payments, a minister said on Tuesday.

Social Affairs and Labour Minister Hind Al-Sabeeh told the official KUNA news agency that millions of dollars in public funds were illegally taken by these families on the basis of false claims.

The families number around 52,000 people in a country with 1.3 million native citizens. The minister said payments were made to 1,479 Kuwaiti women who claimed to be single but were later found to be married.

There were another 1,283 cases of Kuwaiti women claiming they were married to stateless people but were found to be married to Kuwaiti citizens, she said. Kuwait, which has a generous welfare system, spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on social aid to low-income families.

But since the sharp decline in the price of oil, its main source of income, the country has begun applying austerity measures aimed at cutting spending and raising non-oil income.

Measures
The minister said legal measures will be taken against both the families suspected of making false claims and any ministry employees who facilitated the scam. The Criminal Court, headed by Judge Mohammad Al-De’aj, issued its verdict on the case of 41 citizens accused of receiving the national manpower allowance illegally.

The court sentenced 28 of the accused to one year imprisonment, fined them KD 1,000 and ordered them to return the money that they received illegally, while 11 were fined KD 1,000 each and two were acquitted.

Case files indicate that in October and November 2014, the accused forged official and bank documents, whereas 11 of the accused registered in the Public Institution for Social Security in order to receive allowances from the Manpower and Government Restructuring Program (MGRP) and the State Executive Authority in the Civil Service Commission (CSC).

The accused also opened bank accounts and got statements of accounts from the banks for the fake transactions to appear legal. Two of the accused presented fake certificates showing that the rest of the accused are working in a general trading and contracting company.

The fake documents were submitted to an employee who approved them and the transactions were referred to the higher authorities. The documents were then submitted to an employee at MGRP who approved them and asked the banks to open accounts for the accused so they received allowances illegally.

The prosecution disclosed the accused received a total of KD 174,842 illegally from the MGRP. A lawyer from the Legal Department of MGRP said the main objective of the institution is to encourage citizens to work in the private sector by providing them allowance according to their qualifications.

The lawyer pointed out the allowances were granted to the accused based on the documents they presented to MGRP, indicating the payment of the allowances was stopped upon discovery of the fake documents and the accused were referred to the prosecution. The sentence is not final as it can be challenged.

Around 80 percent of Kuwait’s national workforce of 360,000 is employed by the government which offers higher pay and fewer working hours. Under the national labour support programme, the government pays a monthly salary to all Kuwaitis who take up jobs in the private sector. The state spends more than $700 million a year on the scheme.

By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah Staff and Agencies

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