Teacher accused of misusing public funds and forgery

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

A schoolteacher accused of forging shop invoices and pocketing hundreds of dinars in petty cash will have his fate decided next month, after missing court despite being formally summoned.

Prosecutors have charged the defendant with misusing public funds and forging private documents. He has not appeared in court.

The High Criminal Court is expected to rule on the matter on 17 June.

The man, an Arab national in his forties, worked as a design and technology teacher at a primary school.

Fake receipts

Prosecutors say he repeatedly claimed to have spent his own money on supplies for classroom use, then handed in fake receipts and collected the reimbursements in cash.

The sum in question amounts to BD274 and 53 fils.

He allegedly used seven tampered invoices to obtain the funds.

In some instances, he is said to have fabricated receipts entirely. In others, he reportedly took genuine ones and adjusted the figures.

All were submitted to the school cashier, who authorised the payments in good faith.

Routine audit

The case came to light during a routine audit.

The Ministry of Education’s oversight team, while reviewing the school’s accounts, noticed irregularities in a number of receipts.

This prompted the formation of an internal committee to comb through the documents.

His name appeared on seven of them. Each one, the inquiry found, was fraudulent.

Shop invoices

Some had been made to resemble legitimate shop invoices. Others were real but altered to inflate the amounts.

One was traced to a known store and had been doctored to give the impression of a genuine claim.