About 20 cases involving mishandling of ‘public money’ sent to prosecution
This news has been read 14028 times!
Media, social networks lauded for targeting corrupt people
KUWAIT CITY, Sept 14: Acting Secretary-General of the Public Authority for Anti-Corruption (Nazaha) Dr Muhammad Abdul-Rahman Bozubar revealed that the commission has referred 20 cases, which are currently circulating to the Public Prosecution, in addition to seven cases in which various criminal judgments were obtained, ranging from first-degree judgments, appeal and final judgments, reports Al-Rai daily. Bozubar stated that “all reports referred to the Public Prosecution do not deviate from crimes that occur on public money, which are wastage of public money, profiteering, forgery, bribery, embezzlement, graft, appropriation of public money and facilitating the appropriation of public money.”
He indicated “cases that have been referred to the Public Prosecution are always within the specific jurisdiction stipulated in Article 22 of the law establishing the authority, which explicitly stipulates a number of crimes with which the authority is concerned.”
He added “the most notable crime the authority is looking at is public money related offenses contained in the Public Funds Protection Law,” pointing out that Nazaha plays the role of researching, investigating and gathering evidences on the reports it received by focusing on the responsibility of the public employee subject to the Commission’s law in committing such crimes”.
Regarding the most prominent judgments obtained by Nazaha, he said, “There is a final ruling and the commission has finally been able to obtain it, convicting top officials at the level of undersecretaries and directors general. This ruling will open the issue of returning to those officials demanding the sums that were obtained and collecting fines prescribed in accordance with the law”.
He indicated “there are cases before the Public Prosecution, ranging from bribery to benefiting or obstructing the work of the authority after delaying the provision of information and data related to one of the reports the authority was looking into, which forced the authority to initiate a disability report against the person responsible for it.
He indicated that “dealing with reports is confidential and it’s assigned as soon as it reaches one of the competent auditors in the authority, who in turn prepares an integrated work plan and time frame for its completion. He then begins collecting information, hearing of witnesses and testimonies, and going out to the judicial police if inquired until it completes the referral to the Public Prosecution.
The informant will appear before the Public Prosecution and the Deputy Attorney General to clarify the point of view of integrity, andthis specialist can be summoned by the criminal courts as a witness until reach the final judgments.
Bozubar stressed the need for formal requirements (to be against one of those subject to the authority’s law mentioned in Article 2), and objectivity in communications (to be within the category of crimes mentioned in Article 22), pointing out that the Corona pandemic made the authority to facilitate the process of receiving communications through e-mail, which led to the reception of more than 100 reports since March.
“This is in addition to the total number of reports received since the inception, and therefore, technical development helped the whistleblowers- in addition to the personal presence. In the future, communication will be activated electronically, by submitting it through secure electronic means to complete the system for receiving communications”. Bozubar stated the important role played by the media and social networks in enlightening the integrity of some issues and suspicions of corruption, and Nazaha, in its role, monitors these cases, in addition to shedding light on the role of law enforcement agencies with all regulatory agencies and the desired integration in the field of combating corruption and promoting integrity.
This news has been read 14028 times!
