Kuwait: Govt staff who got jobs with fake degrees will be forced to return salaries
Degrees issued from abroad to be targeted and will cover tens of thousands of employees
Cairo: Kuwait’s government agencies are set to examine their employees’ education degrees to spot fake certificates and take legal action against the bogus civil servants, a Kuwaiti newspaper has reported.
The scrutiny will “target” degrees issued from abroad and will cover tens of thousands of Kuwaiti and foreign employees working at government institutions, Al Qabas quoted government sources as disclosing.
“In case of doubting any certificate, it will be sent to the Ministry of Higher Education to verify its authenticity,” the sources added.
Should an employee’s certificate be found to be false, legal action would be taken, with the suspect to be referred to prosecution “immediately” and be obligated to return all salaries and financial perks received by virtue of the certificate, the sources said. The scrutiny will cover high school and university degrees.
Earlier this year, a Kuwaiti criminal court sentenced a female member of the ruling family to three years in prison after she was found guilty of forging her university degree and using it to increase her salary.
The court also ordered the sheikha whose name was not disclosed to pay a fine of KD150,000 equal to the money she had received in salary from her job at an unnamed key ministry due to the fake degree, Al Qabas said at the time .
The defendant was also ordered to pay additional KD150,000 in a punitive fine.
Although the defendant was ordered to return all the salary money she had got by means of forgery, the court established a new rule that the accused in such cases are not forgiven from other penalties.