A Kuwaiti government minister responsible for infrastructure has resigned after being handed a two-year prison sentence for his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal.
Kuwait’s Minister of Public Works, Electricity and Water, Ahmad Al-Jassar (Jaber Abd AlKhaliq/KUNA)
Minister of Electricity, Water and Public Works, Ahmad Al-Jassar, resigned yesterday after a Kuwaiti lower court on Monday sentenced him and 14 former and current officials from his ministry to a two-year jail term and dismissal from service.
However, Jassar, whose lawyer said he would appeal the sentence, can have the jail term suspended by paying $3,300 (KD1,000).
The minister and his co-defendants were also each fined just over $66,000 (KD20,000), according to newspaper Kuwait Times.
The case dates back to a 2007 corruption scandal in which inadequate power generators were hastily procured to cope with an electricity shortage.
A senior ministry official at the time, Jassar was a member of a committee that sanctioned the importing of a number of power generators that were found to be faulty and secondhand.
In what became one of Kuwait’s most highly publicized graft cases, it emerged that a local company was given the contract to urgently import the generators at a cost to the government of several hundred million dinars.
Jassar’s lawyer yesterday appealed against the court’s ruling, claiming his client’s innocence.
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My congratulations to the relevant authorities for imposing in a Kuwaiti government minister responsible for infrastructure who had resigned after being handed a two-year prison sentence for his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal.
On being handed a two-year prison sentence for his alleged involvement in a corruption scandal, would he not have been barred from holding any Ministerial post in the Government? If yes then his resignation has little value as he should have resigned when he was first suspected of corruption as then he would have displayed integrity.
Anyway I wonder how many ruling Political leaders will follow the example of the Kuwaiti Government? Sadly not many and some continue to hold posts of power even when there are common perceptions of their involvement in corrupt practices but conviction not possible due to lack of evidence which may not be provided by classifying the documents as ‘official secrets’ and thus cover up the corrupt/fraud practices. Their luxurious and wasteful lifestyles at public expense and accumulated wealth provide ample evidence of their fraud/corrupt activities. Yet many of them proudly announce that they are serving the people and acting in the best interests of their countries.