KUWAIT: The finance ministry has begun work on executing the plan to Kuwaitize government jobs, and is sending letters to ministries and other government entities in coordination with the Civil Service Commission to make each entity prepare lists of the number of expat employees who will be terminated during the coming fiscal year (April 2018-March 2019).
Al-Anbaa daily said a document shows the decision commits government bodies to reduce the number of expat employees annually in order to reach the designated percentage by 2022 for each category of jobs as per the Kuwaitization plan that was launched by the government in Sept 2017. The document asks each entity to reduce the number of expats and adhere to the set percentage in the Kuwaitization plan.
The demand by the finance ministry to send the lists urgently is within the framework of preparing an estimated budget of government bodies' expenses, as the finance ministry is trying to put a limit on expenses on them. It said no additional allocations should be sought during the fiscal year, except in highly urgent cases. The document said government bodies will be committed to coordinate with the Civil Service Commission to send to the finance ministry the final numbers of expats who are to be terminated, so that the finance ministry will freeze the job and remove it.
Sources said that a government body asked for several million dinars to pay expats' end of service indemnities, in addition to the difference between the newly-appointed Kuwaitis and expats' salaries whose services will be terminated. The sources added that this is an example of what will happen with many other government entities that have asked for additional financial allocations.
The plan called for terminating expats in the following job categories based on specialization, so that they will be 100 percent Kuwaitized by 2022:
* Information technology
* Marine
* Arts, information, letters and public relations
* Development, administrative follow-up and statistics
* Administrative support