Manama: Absenteeism in Kuwait's public sector has reached alarming levels with only half of all employees showing up at work, according to an official report.
Kuwait's Annual Leave Report, covering the period between January and March 2011, reveals half of the state's employees were absent from work under various excuses, costing the country's treasury more than KD10.5 million (Dh139.2 million), the Al Watan Daily said on Thursday.
The report, released by the Information System Centre, said statistics showed that 46 per cent of the total number of employees who did not show up for work cited illness as the cause. The 532,132 sick leave days taken by the employees were worth KD10,642,640.
The report said that February, although the shortest of the three months under the study, had the highest percentage of sick leave applicants. Kuwait also celebrated a string of national occasions during the month.
According to the report, 8,799 people made "false claims" during the three months, saying they needed to see their doctors, but did not bring back medical reports attesting to the visits.
Kuwait has a total population of 3.3 million people, including 2.2 million foreigners.
