Dubai: Five men, including three employees of the Ministry of Labour, have been accused of forging around 20,900 electronic labour transactions and accepting Dh4.2 million in bribes.
The three ministry employees, a Jordanian, a Lebanese and an Indian, were said to have accepted Dh200 in bribe per e-transaction that they carried out for the benefit of two Indian suspects, a typing centre manager and a private company’s worker, over a period of five years.
The three employees accessed the ministry’s e-system illegally, according to records, and provided the manager and the worker with logistical and technical support to carry out those transactions illegally.
Prosecutors accused the three employees of abusing the authority granted to them at the ministry, providing the Indian manager and his countryman worker with support in an illegal manner, forging electronic transactions and accepting bribes.
Meanwhile, the typing centre manager and company worker were accused of aiding and abetting the trio [ministry employees].
The Lebanese suspect missed Sunday’s hearing but the four other suspects pleaded not guilty and refuted their accusations when they appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance.
The prosecutors said the Jordanian, Lebanese and Indian employees abused the authority granted to them as Ministry of Labour staff, accepted bribes from the other two suspects and provided them with logistical and technical support to have the electronic transactions completed and issued.
Prosecutors said the ministry employees tampered with the details on the records and labour contracts between labourers and companies and their sponsors by linking them to the ministry’s e-system illegally and carrying out those transactions although they were not permitted to do so.
The trio were charged with carrying out those transactions in favour of the other two suspects [manager and worker] between January 2009 and June 2014.
“That is not true,” argued the Jordanian suspect when he entered an innocent plea before presiding judge Mohammad Jamal.
The Indian company worker contended: “I did not know that the transactions were forged until the case was referred to the Public Prosecution.”
The Indian ministry employee argued: “I did not take any bribe … and I did not access the ministry’s system.”
A Ministry of Labour section head claimed to prosecutors that the e-forgery was discovered after a number of clients complained about their electronic transactions.
“An internal investigation revealed that the three ministry’s employees had established a number of bogus accounts for non-existent clients and provided the access details to those accounts to a several typing centres … and those typing centres accessed the ministry’s e-system and carried out the illegitimate transactions,” the section head testified to prosecutors.
Records said the suspect were apprehended one at a time after the police were informed.
The lawyer of the suspects present asked presiding judge Jamal to adjourn the hearing until they read the case file and present their defence arguments.
