Kuwait refers two army officers to prosecution over suspected corruption in Eurofighter deal

LONDON: Kuwait has referred two senior army officers to the public prosecutor over suspected corruption related to a deal to buy Eurofighter Typhoon jets, the state anti-corruption body on Monday.
Kuwait received last month its first two Eurofighter Typhoons as part of an order for a total of 28 aircraft that will be delivered to the Kuwait Air Force.
“Investigations show that the defendants committed several violations that caused serious damage to public money by paying inflation bills to the manufacturer that exceeded the total value agreed upon in the main contract ... without prior permission from the relevant authorities,” the Kuwait Anti Corruption Authority (Nazaha) said in a statement.
The authority said it had received a report from the minister of defense on the ministry’s contract to purchase the aircraft, which was marred by special remarks in the inflation clause.
“The investigations revealed that the defendant committed several violations that caused serious damage to public money by issuing inflation-related bills to the manufacturer that exceeded the total value agreed upon in the main contract,” the statement said.
It added that the exchange process took place without prior permission from the concerned authorities in the defense and finance ministries, and without a documentary credit for that exchange, which affected the schedule of payments allocated to the said contract.
Nazaha said that a major general and colonel in Kuwait’s army would face prosecutors over their alleged misuse of public funds.
The authorities thanked an unnamed whistleblower for helping the government obtain information about the misuse of funds and said efforts to collect and examine evidence continued.
(With Reuters and AP)