ShareKUWAIT: The Public Authority for Manpower decided using the biometric access system to mark employees' return from leaves, without having to do any other paper work. In this regard, the authority's director Ahmad Al-Moussa issued the administrative directive number 25/2019 announcing the new measure in a bid to facilitate the human resources' work process and accelerate personnel affairs' transactions.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health (MOH) is studying the possibility of imposing a KD 1 fee to attest sick leaves issued by private sector medical facilities for government employees, Al-Jarida daily reported yesterday quoting informed sources who noted that this step is taken to stop sick leave manipulation or forgery, especially in view of the "huge numbers of sick leaves issued by private sector medical facilities over the past two years."
"Some of these leaves were fake and made without any medical examination," the sources added, noting that such leaves were usually 'bought' and thus, it was decided to endorse them through the general medical council and the medical licenses department.
Moreover, the sources stressed that MOH is currently working on allocating special accounts for private sector medical facilities on the ministry's system on the integrated systems' website so that they could directly register all sick leaves on issuance to facilitate and accelerate checking and endorsing them. Notably, the medical council imposed a KD 2 fee by the end of September to endorse private sector sick leaves but minister Sheikh Basil Al-Sabah suspended it for review.
Friday Prayer's speech
The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs distributed today's Friday Prayer speech on various mosques under the title of "Let's Keep Kuwait Safe together." The speech focuses on the need to ignore exchanged abuse and accusations on social media as those practices are totally rejected in Islam, which always calls for good and integral conduct and prohibits bad conduct. The speech also calls for unity and avoiding rallies and all forms of chaos that might be negatively utilized by those plotting to harm Kuwait.
Students abroad
The Ministry of Higher Education has recently prepared a draft law on banning Kuwaiti students abroad from getting degrees through affiliation or associate studies and mandating enrollment to full time studies under the supervision of the ministry, Kuwait's cultural offices or Kuwaiti embassies abroad, said informed sources. The sources added that once finished, the bill would be referred to the fatwa and legislation department to be legally paraphrased prior to submittal to the parliament for approval. Notably, the ministry of higher education believes in the need to follow the full time studies and ban affiliation, which opens for manipulation and twisted ways to unlawfully obtain degrees and eventually have unqualified graduates.
Jahra seafront
The primary cost of the Jahra seafront development project would be KD 300-400 million, the project's manager at Kuwait Municipality Nawaf Al-Muttairi said. He added that the project would be the largest ever in seafront projects in Kuwait and that the consultancy contract had been already signed in preparation for implementation. Meanwhile, the municipal council's technical committee approved a proposal made by member Abdul Aziz Al-Me'jel pertaining with allowing offices to be opened in the mezzanines and first floors of industrial area buildings.
Money laundering
Kuwait has recently witnessed a number of positive developments in fighting money laundering, funding terrorism, meeting international requirements and commitment to international standards in fighting money laundering and terrorism funding, said Ghazi Al-Abdul Jaleel, the acting head of Kuwait Financial Investigations Unit and EGMONT Group's MENA regional representative. Speaking on the sidelines of participating in the national summit for fighting terrorism funding and the related sanctions which was organized by UAE's central bank in Abu Dhabi in the period of November 17-18, Abdul Jaleel pointed to the significance of assessing regional threats, the weaknesses they pose and attempt to fight them through effective local and international cooperation. Abdul Jaleel added that money laundering and terrorism funding are extremely dangerous crimes that have absolute negative impacts on national and international economies, safety and security. "Kuwait is working hard on maintaining its financial sector integrity and safety," he concluded.
By A Saleh
