KUWAIT: The total number of government contract workers who benefited from allowing visa transfers over the past six months was around 12,000 persons working for over 250 companies that have contracts with the government, an official said yesterday. Moussa stressed that employers hailed the decision of allowing laborers to transfer their residency visas for a fee instead of having to leave the country, said Ahmad Al-Moussa, Acting Director of the Manpower Public Authority.
"Following several meetings with them, the manpower authority was keen on fulfilling the needs of employers with government projects' contracts," he underlined, noting that many of the employers' demands were met and that had been granted many facilities such as changing job descriptions, authorizing the government contracts department to contact relevant authorities to get security approvals, authorizing labor inspection departments to issue salary certificates valid for three months and addressing the civil aviation department over airlines flying contracted laborers in.
2016-2017 budget
In other news, the parliament's budgets and final statement committee yesterday met Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and Minister of State for Planning and Development Hind Al-Subaih to discuss the manpower authority's 2016-2017 budget. Committee chairman MP Adnan Abdulsamad commended the minister's efforts in putting the recommendations made by the committee into practice. "Remarks on the budget do not deny the presence of efforts to fix financial and administrative malfunctions," he underlined, pointing out that remarks on the authority included not following specific systems in assessing employers' needs of workers and remarks on the company responsible for automating the process.
Responding to the remarks, Subaih stressed that ownership of the database was transferred from that company to the authority in order to prevent unauthorized staff from accessing the system. She added that residency detectives had also shown great cooperation in arresting work permit forgers, illusionary companies and loose marginal labor.
National unity law
The constitutional court is scheduled to pass a ruling on May 11, 2016 in a case contesting the constitutionality of the national unity law number 19/2012 because it had been issued by a decree of necessity and violated article 71 of the constitution.
KPTC suspends Failaka trips
Kuwait Public Transport Company (KPTC) CEO Essa Abdullah Al-Hubail said that the company had temporarily suspended its ferry trips from Ras Al-Ardh to Failaka island from last Sunday because of accumulation of sand on the seabed towards Failaka harbor entrance, which could block marine traffic and jeopardize navigation safety. Hubail explained that in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications, KPTC is working on dredging the sand and rehabilitating the port to receive the company's ferries.
By A Saleh