Kuwait’s Minister of Awqaf (Islamic Endowments), ‘Abdallah Al-M’atouq, may have to resign following the revelation of a series of embezzlements over the past two years, the Kuwaiti daily A-Siyasah reports.
"Eight million dinars [$28.5 million] allocated to the Mosques Bank [Committee] were vaporized over the last two years," sources told the paper.
The Mosques Bank Committee at the Ministry of Awqaf is responsible for construction and renovation of mosques, as well as organizing their religious activities. The committee’s members have long been ignoring requests from the Comptroller’s Office to provide it with receipts and documents, the sources said.
It was reported that a senior official in the ministry, who was in charge of the mosques department, has already resigned.
The embezzlements included many tenders for unnecessary renovation works. At one time, the sources revealed, the electrical system and all the doors and windows of a mosque were replaced twice in less than six months.