A final judgment was issued by the Court of Cassation to put behind bars for seven years the former director of Kuwait Airways and ordered him to pay 320,000 dinars in fine, which is twice the amount he received from the corporation in the form of salaries and bonuses, throughout the period of his work, which he ‘earned’ unjustly, because he was holding forged university degree.

The story of this forger is classic, and it is not the first and similar incidents have come to light earlier. So many of those who succeed in committing a fraud usually continue to repeat it, but some fall into the hands of justice in the end, and all that is required to expose these people is to implement the systems and laws, strictly, and to move away completely from exceptions, which have recently become the rule.

The convict in this shameful case had obtained the citizenship a few years ago in a way that Mr. Saleh Al-Fadhalah, head of the Central System for the Remedying the Situation of Illegal Residents, had always warned against expanding of naturalization, without serious scrutiny and that the granting of citizenship takes place in the narrowest limits.

Many also warned, orally and in writing, of the need to continue exposing all forged nationalities in addition to forged educational certificates, but the concerned authorities decided to freeze the decision, often out of a desire not to expose some.

This convict had previously applied to work for Kuwait Airways, and his application was accepted as an employee and not as an engineer, due to lack of confidence in his certificate especially since he did not have a nationality at the time.

After obtaining the Kuwaiti nationality, by decree, since his mother is Kuwaiti, he applied to change his job title to become engineer. This was done for him, and he was promoted to a job in his alleged engineering specialty.

The forgery was revealed, by chance, after a party in the institution insisted that he should submit the original of his degree in engineering, instead of a photocopy. He was unable to do so.

During his supervisory work, this forger caused many things to be sabotaged, as he was not originally qualified to assume that precise job in its requirements, and he misbehaved a lot, before his matter was exposed.

If all the authorities in the state followed the principles and systems in appointment, and refused, with the support of a decision issued by the Council of Ministers, to prevent appointments through intermediaries or orders, we would indeed be well off.

Even if the appointment was made by orders that cannot be rejected, this does not prevent the concerned person from verifying the validity of the certificate of the appointed person as no party can oppose such a procedure.

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By Ahmad alsarraf