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UAE officer takes Dh767,000 bribe, causes Dh2.2m in losses

Dubai - The sergeant allegedly forged as many as 571 electronic documents and unlawfully used a colleague's username to process the unlawful transactions.

A sergeant in the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs did not show up in the Court of First Instance on Sunday to face a charge of accepting a total of Dh 767,000 in bribes from a Omani man who is on the run.
The 27-year-old Emirati sergeant was based in the detention and deportation of violators section (Investigation department, Follow- up on violators and foreigners sector) GDRFA, when he allegedly processed hundreds of transactions unlawfully. The transactions included exit passes for individuals, of different nationalities, who were still present in the UAE. He is also accused of processing temporary blocking of tourists wrongfully reported absconding.
The sergeant allegedly forged as many as 571 electronic documents and unlawfully used a colleague's username to process the unlawful transactions. That colleague (a 32-year-old officer) denied, in court, charges of helping and abetting in the forgery and bribery crimes.
The Omani accused is standing trial in absentia on the charge of offering the bribes to the officer. The irregularities, from August 2007 to August 2012, were discovered in early January 2015.

According to a report by the Follow- up on Violators and Foreigners Sector and the Financial Resources Department at the GDRFA, the directorate incurred more than Dh 2.2 million in losses worth of fees which the officers on trial did not collect when processing the said transactions.
An officer in the preventive security department in the GDRFA said "We were informed by reliable secret sources that the first accused was dealing with the runaway defendant to process illegal transactions. The applications included temporary blocking of files (absconding reports) in the system".

They would process the applications without settling the Dh 6,500 fee for every tourist who was falsely reported absconding.
He would also issue exit passes for violators of the Foreigners' Residency and Entry Law, who owed cumulated fines. He would allegedly disregard the non-payment of such fines after collecting bribes, the witness added.

The trial has been adjourned to February 12.
mary@khaleejtimes.com