KUWAIT: Kuwait's Ministry of Justice (MoJ) yesterday suspended an embezzlement case against former Minister of Health Dr Ali Al-Obeidi, Health Ministry Undersecretary Dr Khaled Al-Sahlawi and Assistant Undersecretary for Legal Affairs Dr Mahmoud Abdulhadi, referring it to the Constitutional Court. The court said in its decision that this referral was to settle the case and the constitutionality of the second paragraph of Article 8 and Article 11 of Law 88/1995 on the trial of ministers. Last August, former and current officials at the Ministry of Health were referred to the public prosecution on corruption charges.

Highway development
Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Housing Affairs Jenan Bushehri issued a ministerial decision to add the project of developing Abdaly highway to those being investigated by a special committee formed to investigate the reasons of delay. The decision urged the investigating committee to examine the withdrawal of the lowest bidder in the tender of building, developing and maintaining roads and intersections to serve Mutlaa city as well as suspicion of deliberate delay in awarding the tender.
Meanwhile, the Public Authority for Housing Welfare reviewed in its monthly press conference the projects it executed and accomplished in 2018, including housing units, apartments, land plots and infrastructure. The housing authority's official spokesperson Ibrahim Al-Nashi said the authority had accomplished several projects in 2018 including low cost cities in Sulaibiya and Taima, residential apartments in Sabah Al-Ahmad City and West Abdullah Mubarak, in addition to the infrastructure needed for these projects. Nashi added that the authority signed 35 contracts in 2018 and that 24 others are pending.

Free licensing
Separately, Kuwait Municipality's acting director Faisal Al-Jumaa said occasional marquees and tents will be licensed for free after only paying a deposit. In other news, the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) announced its readiness to connect electricity to plots in Naayem scrap market after it installed and operated a main 5-megawatt unit and laid the grid cables, said power grids engineer Mohammed Al-Otaibi.

By A Saleh and Meshaal Al-Enezi