Tunisia’s anti-corruption minister Mohammed Abbou announced that the government was seeking to retrieve funds that were allocated to poor families but seized by thousands of public employees.
The I WATCH rights organization had revealed that some 4,000 employees had unjustly received aid that was dedicated to needy families.
The violations were discovered when the social affairs ministry was compiling a list of beneficiaries from the government program, it explained.
It stressed that it will follow up on the issue and ensure that the funds are returned to those who deserve them.
The best way to return them is through introducing a wage cut for the employees, who had abused a flaw in the system at the expense of the needy.
An official at the social affairs ministry said the ministry had decided to directly deduct the wages of 600 of the employees. It will also cut aid to 3,400 others, whose social status may have changed since the time they were approved to receive it.
The government will prepare a new aid point-based system dedicated to the poor. The program, which will be ready by the end of the year, will take into account the health, education and housing conditions of the applicants before deciding on who benefits from it.
