By B Izzak

KUWAIT: Head of the Audit Bureau, the state accounts watchdog, Faisal Al-Shaye on Thursday submitted his resignation to the National Assembly speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun, blaming political disputes for his decision. Shaye warned in his resignation letter, which was released to the local media, of the dangers threatening the future of the Bureau and its work, saying that his resignation was caused by political disputes. A number of lawmakers in the new National Assembly have called on Shaye to step down and at least one MP has submitted a letter to the Assembly calling on the Assembly to vote for sacking Shaye.

“I should ring the alarm bell” said Shaye in the letter, adding that the country has witnessed political conflicts inside and outside the National Assembly and “the last few months have seen serious twists against the Audit Bureau, deliberately targeting the post of its president”. A former MP, Shaye was appointed to the post by the National Assembly in 2019. The Audit Bureau reviews key projects and financial issues and reports to the National Assembly which sometimes asks the Bureau to carry out probes on certain issues.

Shaye also accused some MPs and parliamentary committees of attempting to interfere in the functioning of the Audit Bureau, using incomplete information to show as if the Bureau was committing violations. He also added that some debates in the National Assembly targeted the president of the Bureau and became political debates when they should have been purely technical. Shaye said that the National Assembly should keep the Audit Bureau away from political disputes to preserve its independence and neutrality.

In the meantime, MP Marzouk Al-Ghanem yesterday sent questions to Oil Minister Saad Al-Barrak over the Dorra gas field, shared by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and also claimed by Iran. Ghanem said that Kuwait’s Al-Jarida newspaper published on July 3 a story quoting Iranian oil officials as saying the Islamic Republic planned to carry out the development of the field unilaterally.

Ghanem asked the minister if the story was true and requested to know the latest developments in the talks between Kuwait and Saudi Arabia on one hand and Iran about sharing the field. He also asked about the role of the oil minister toward the issue. Kuwait has categorically rejected Iranian statements on the Dorra field, reiterating that it is fully owned by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and re-invited Tehran for talks to demarcate the maritime borders with Iran.