KUWAIT: The Criminal Court has postponed the case of Mishref sewage pumping station, in which nine persons are accused. Among them are three leading figures of the Ministry of Public Works. All are accused of forgery and destruction of property.
The session has been postponed until March 13 to await the third suspect. He will obtain a document from Ministry of Public Works indicating his job description. The travel ban on the second suspect has been suspended.
The Public Prosecution Department has charged five of the suspects. They include the General Director of the company which was executing the project. The Operations Manager of the company, an American citizen, has been charged in addition to an engineering consultant. Two laborers, one Lebanese and one Indian, have also been charged.
The charges read that from the period of July 4, 2006 to Aug 23, 2009, they deliberately caused the destruction of the station, which is owned by Ministry of Public Works. They made it unsuitable for work when the first accused, the general manager of the company entrusted in operations and maintenance, refused to import and supply the necessary spare parts to maintain the station. This caused no repair of defects due to the lack of those parts which was operated by the second suspect and under the supervision of the third suspect. This violated the standard technical specifications. The suspects did not follow formalities necessary for the station maintenance.
The first suspect, third, fourth and fifth were charged with forcing the Chief Engineer in Ministry of Public Works. The sixth suspect signed minutes of a meeting dated 20 August, stating that the Ministry of Public Works received operational work from the company.
The remaining suspects are public servants in the Ministry. They supervise the operation of the station and have caused huge losses to the properties of the party they are working for with their mistake. The total losses are estimated at KD 21,093,704.
© Kuwait Times 2012
