A Design and Technology teacher has been found guilty of embezzling school funds by falsifying purchase receipts of craft supplies, the High Criminal Court ruled.
The Egyptian primary school teacher was sentenced to three years in prison, fined BD500 and ordered to return the stolen BD274 to the school in Busaiteen. Judges ruled to deport him following the completion of his sentence.
The 44-year-old Qatar-born man reportedly altered, falsified and forged several receipts and was reimbursed for the altered amounts by the school’s treasury.
Items include canvases, easels, watercolours, drawing supplies, sculpting materials, electric circuit experiment kits, magnets, teaching aids, a drill bit set, a stapler gun, masking tape and a cutting mat.
The man was convicted of exploiting his position as a civil employee to embezzle money from the Education Ministry, presenting false documents to his employer, falsifying bills and using false documents with knowledge of their invalidity.
Accountants at the Education Ministry, tasked with managing risk in government schools, spotted a discrepancy in the primary school’s financial records during a routine audit, the court heard.
“Inconsistencies were detected in the books by oversight officers, and doubts were raised concerning a number of receipts, whose amounts were already reimbursed as petty cash,” read the case files.
“A legal affairs expert and an educator examined the bills, along with the kind of paper used.
“Ministry officials contacted the stationery stores and found that some of the bills had been doctored in order to increase the amount of money reimbursed.
“The defendant had added a 0 to one bill to increase the amount from BD1 to BD10.
“Upon reaching out to another store, it appeared that the purchased items were returned and refunded.
“In another place, a clerk informed officials that the bill did not exist in the store’s records and was even printed on a different kind of paper.”
When confronted with the accusations by committee in the school that was formed to investigate the fraud allegations, the Egyptian teacher reportedly admitted to altering the receipts.
Forgery experts also determined that some of the documents were created from scratch by the defendant through coloured photocopying.
Finally, a Design and Technology co-ordinator at the primary school testified to the Public Prosecution about the mechanism of claiming expenses from the school.
He explained that teachers are given reign to evaluate their classes’ needs and explained the protocol of filing a purchase request, which starts with filling out a form.
The form includes information such as the item, the reason for its purchase and an estimated price, which is first reviewed by the co-ordinator then forwarded for approval by the principal and financial affairs department.
Design and Technology is a subject offered by government schools, teaching primary school students how to envision and build things.
A Design and Technology workbook
As part of the curriculum, children learn how to design and build a slide, pulley, spool, crane, wheel and axel, and are familiarised with woodworking tools and sewing supplies.
They also learn how to create animations, puppets with articulated limbs, prototypes of the puppets, as well as how to build models and sculptures and design a fantasy character.
Students further learn to design packaging, and the curriculum even teaches them how to market and promote their creations.
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