Dubai: A Kuwaiti nurse has been sentenced to five years in prison with hard labour after being caught receiving salaries for a decade without ever stepping foot in her job.
The Criminal Court’s decision, announced on Sunday, also included a hefty fine of 110,000 Kuwaiti dinars (Dh1.31 million) — twice the amount the nurse had unjustly pocketed during the ten-year scam.
No details have been provided regarding how the nurse was able to collect wages for ten years without working.
The case is part of a larger crackdown on corruption in Kuwait’s public sector, where authorities are intensifying efforts to root out fraud and hold wrongdoers accountable for misappropriating public funds.
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The nurse’s case isn't the only salary scandal to hit Kuwait’s public institutions recently. Earlier this year, the Ministry of Education uncovered a troubling oversight: former employees, some of whom had left the country as far back as 2018, had been continuing to receive their salaries.
Fingerprint system
This discovery came to light after the Minister of Education, Dr. Adel Al Adwani, ordered a review of attendance records using a new fingerprint monitoring system.
The high-tech system, linked directly to the Civil Service Bureau’s database, quickly exposed multiple instances of incorrect salary payments — including those to employees who had long since departed the country. It’s part of a broader effort to combat corruption and enforce accountability in government institutions.
Dr. Al Adwani has since vowed to take decisive action, implementing strict checks on employment records and using the fingerprint system to ensure that work hours are properly verified. The ministry is now actively reviewing the records across all schools and departments, with an emphasis on preventing further abuse of the payroll system.
With these new measures in place, Kuwait is making it clear that it will not tolerate misuse of public funds, and individuals who try to exploit the system will face severe consequences.
