I find it still a bit strange that Omani custom and defamation law means its not allowed to publicly name people after they have been found guilty of a crime (or in this case, admitted it). "It would bring shame on the family". Well, maybe it should? Perhaps if people knew that their father would be scorned at the mosque on Friday they would be less inclined to defraud the people of US$3.35 million? Or of committing any crime?
Still, progress.
Oman firm on battling corruption
Times of Oman
FAHAD AL MUKRASHI
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
... recent development in the Muscat Municipality embezzlement case, which revealed that an official embezzled funds in the municipality through forgery.
The latest details of the case reveals that as per Internal Audit Unit of the Muscat Municipality discovered embezzled funds amounting to more than RO1,300,000.
...
The accused, aged 37 years, has been sentenced to 10 years imprisonment and a fine of up to three times of money he embezzled from the municipality.
This case has stressed the importance of internal control of public funds in government institutions.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Sports Affairs is conducting an internal investigation into one of its staff who took advantage of his position to bring to the Sultanate a number of Asian workers.
The employee took advantage of visas which were meant for participating teams in one of the tournament that was hosted by the Sultanate recently.
....
I think this is the tip of the iceberg. Internal Audit caught this guy because he was doing forgery and fraud. What is harder to catch are all the tender board shenanigans, side projects done for officials houses by big contractors on a project with the same Ministry, or the massive abuse of the imported labour visa power of the Ministry of Manpower.
Oman Air A330 Pilot taken off plane
Not published in the papers was the rumoured case last month of the Oman Air Senior A330 Pilot who was busted for being rat-arsed on duty at Muscat Airport. The Captain was I'm told taken off the Muscat to Columbo flight for being suspected of being drunk in charge of an aircraft. The good men of the ROP came and did a breath test - with the measured 'Ethyl Alcohol' result being off the scale - and (probably very unreliable) sources tell me he could hardly walk to get off the flight.
It is not true that Oman Air's famously awesome and complimentary beverage service includes the flight deck, people. Ignore those vicious rumours!However, because the breathalyzer had not been calibrated properly [Duh], and is thus not usable as evidence, this happy flying
90% of expat pilots in Omanair are looking to move. The other 10% are either bonded on A330, very near retirement or bonded for Command upgrade. There are also a few still living in fairy land...
If you fly a lot I wouldn't recommend the PPrune site readers, as its contents, especially those that relate to Middle Eastern Airlines - Oman Air included - will scare the shit out of you. And as Oman's ATC system upgrade troubles continue to be unresolved, the words 'accident waiting to happen' come to mind. I always kiss the tarmac, just like the Pope.
Meanwhile, up and coming local Expat blogger and active Twitterer Mr Sythe, author of Muscat Mutterings (see the excellent post recently busting the infamous touchy/feelly/rapist taxi driver tendency in the Sultanate) published a short interview with Undercover Dragon yesterday.
I do like the growth of the English language bloggers we've seen in Oman over the past couple of years, both Expat and Omani (even if sometimes we loose a few good ones too). Mr Sythe is one of the good ones. Give him a taste, if you haven't already!
OK. Off to sort out payments of treasure after my leave. As foreshadowed in the interview, big news coming soon readers, promise.
