KUWAIT: MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji yesterday filed an inquiry with Deputy Prime Minister Finance Minister Anas Al-Saleh concerning the investment authority's response to the ministry's letter about regulations on selling state-owned companies. In his inquiry, Turaiji asked about the person responsible for leaking the new rules to the local press, the actual owner of the concerned companies and the ministry's attitude after the authority rejected its regulations.
Anti-Corruption Authority
MP Hamdan Al-Azmi hailed the current parliamentary legislation committee's achievements, noting that it had been explaining all positive and negative sides in all bills and proposals. Azmi urged the committee to discuss the proposals made about the Anti-Corruption Authority, pointing out that Kuwait needs passing its law as soon as possible to fight corruption prevailing in various ministries and government establishments. Azmi also called for immediate action towards all the violations mentioned in the Audit Bureau's reports that had been accumulating year after year with no reaction on the government's side except promises.
Labor union
Kuwait Petroleum Corporation's (KPC) employees syndicate criticized lawmakers' silence about the government's actions and compliance to the interference of influential merchants in the oil sector in a way that jeopardizes Kuwait's prime wealth in view of the current international oil market challenges. A statement issued by the syndicate said that former oil minister Ali Al-Omair had put a limit to many public fund administrative violations and some suspicious contracts and that this did not appeal to some senior oil sector officials such as CEO Nizar Al-Adsani and Bader Al-Sherad, who stopped executing the government's decisions with the help of a 'lobby' of people with commercial interests in the oil sector and eventually put pressure on decision makers to remove Omair. The syndicate added that once Omair was reshuffled, the KPC board of directors 'paid the price' by giving 800 vacancies to a subcontractor, which violates the Audit Bureau regulations pertaining appointing citizens.
By A Saleh