Thanks to the system of keeping track of attendance using fingerprints, the Education Ministry of Kuwait has been able to identify a major loophole. The Ministry had been paying salaries to some employees who had left about six years ago!
This reminds us of a similar oversight that was discovered back in March 2018 in India, when it was found that the Delhi division of the northern zone had been generating bills towards allowances for overtime, night duty and travel to employees who did not work for them. It is reported that this disbursement of payments to non-existent staff drained the exchequer of Rs 1.5 crore during 2016-17. As a result, a need was felt to closely sift through the employee master data.
Instructions were then issued by the Railway Board to the zonal railways to undertake a validation exercise to match the master file of employees’ data with the service records for each one of them.
Fortunately for Kuwait, Minister of Education and Higher Education and Scientific Research Adel Al Adwani had directed the implementation of a fingerprint system for marking employee attendance, and integration of this system with the Civil Service Bureau’s systems. This had led to the discovery of wrong payments being made towards salaries of employees who had not just left the service of the ministry but also the country.
As per The Siasat Daily, a committee was set up to look into the oversight and to take legal action against those found accountable. Employee records and employment contracts are being examined across schools and departments to ensure compliance.
