Ministry staff jailed over Dh4.2m bribes

Two employees of the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation  have been sacked and will be jailed for three years each for forging around 20,900 electronic labour transactions and accepting Dh4.2 million in bribes.

The ministry employees, a Jordanian and an Indian, accepted Dh200 in bribe per e-transaction to benefit a typing centre’s Indian manager and his countryman private company’s worker over a period of five years.

The Dubai Court of First Instance fined the ministry’s Jordanian and Indian employee Dh4.2 million and ordered them to jointly repay the amount to the Ministry of Labour.

Presiding judge Mohammad Jamal also jailed the Indian manager and the Indian worker for three years each and fined them Dh150,000 each.

According to Sunday’s ruling, presiding judge Jamal said the two convicted employees will be terminated from their jobs. The four convicts will be deported after serving their sentences.

A Lebanese employee at the ministry was cleared due to lack of evidence that he had been involved in the scam.

According to records, the employees accessed the ministry’s e-system illegally and provided the manager and the worker with logistical and technical support to carry out those transactions.

The ministry employees tampered with the details on the records and labour contracts between labourers and companies and their sponsors by linking them to the ministry’s e-system illegally and carrying out those transactions although they were not permitted to do so.

The defendants carried out the transactions in favour of the other two convicts between January 2009 and June 2014.

A section head of the Ministry testified that the e-forgery was discovered after a number of clients complained about their electronic transactions.

“An internal investigation revealed that the ministry’s employees had established a number of bogus accounts for non-existent clients and provided the access details to those accounts to several typing centres … and those typing centres accessed the ministry’s e-system and carried out the illegitimate transactions,” the section head testified to prosecutors.

Records stated that the defendants were apprehended after the police were informed. All the suspects had pleaded not guilty.

Sunday’s ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days

source : gulfnews