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Some officials at the Ministry of Education (MoE) are alleged involved in a scandal linked to the lists of beneficiaries of the KD 150,000 meant to be shared among 276 officials, who participated in the just concluded high school examinations, reports Al-Qabas daily. A source at the ministry revealed that some officials in charge of the lists allegedly tampered with the sharing formula in several regions. He said the allowances, which were meant for chief invigilators, their assistants and several other employees from the ministry, in addition to those from the private and religious education departments, were not shared according to the stipulated criteria. “The duration of work for each of the beneficiaries as a major index of sharing should have been considered,” he revealed.


Lapses
Clear lapses were noted between allowances payable and duration of work, which arouse suspicions that partiality played a vital role in the sharing formula, the source added. He explained the high school examinations took place from early June until early July and there were morning and afternoon shifts, in addition to exclusive late night shifts for certain officials. “The latter shift started in the middle of June when the marking started, since the late night shift was for markings only,” he explained.
In a dramatic manner, the source realized that heads of committees are entitled to 13 dinars per day, their assistants should get 11 dinars and other members 10 dinars. He said a member is entitled to a total amount of 60 dinars for either of the first two shifts, if he completed his duty without any absence and those that were involved in the night shift are entitled to a maximum of 90 dinars. It is then surprising to find out that about 100 periods were calculated for some committee members, which raised their payments to 1,000 dinars while another 100 dinars were included for assistant committee heads, the source lamented. “Eighty-eight periods were also calculated for leaders of committees to make their payments amount to 1,144 dinars,” he affirmed.


Questioned
Wondering if the lists were reviewed before approval at the Finance Department of the Ministry of Education, the source also questioned how they came about calculating up to 100 periods or shifts for certain officials, which is impossible as it is an indication that they might have worked two to three shifts in a day. He also raised suspicions that certain senior officials in the ministry might have used this method of inflating entitlements to motivate certain officials. “It is absurd that the lists, copies of which were sent to various important departments in the ministry, were not properly verified before approval,” the source fumed.

Source -arabtimesonline