KUWAIT CITY, Aug 7: The Court of Cassation has closed one of the biggest corruption cases in the country -- the embezzlement of KD933,000 from the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW). The case centered on the illegal seizure of rent allowance funds through the manipulation of citizens’ housing files without their knowledge.

The court sentenced a department head at PAHW to 15 years in prison with hard labor, fined him KD1,934,000, and dismissed him from his position. The court also upheld the five-year prison sentence imposed on two employees, fined them KD627,000 and dismissed one of them from his job. Two other employees were fined KD3,000 each, and one of them was also dismissed from his job, bringing the total number of dismissed staff involved in the case to three. The case dates back to 2016, when the Legal Department at the authority uncovered a widespread tampering with citizens’ rent allowance files, resulting in the unauthorized disbursement of huge sums through the use of their data within their knowledge.

By Jaber Al-Hamoud
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff