Fourth Ring Road repair to be completed by year's end
KUWAIT: The Public Authority for Manpower said it is currently working on linking all labor departments and investment branches at co-operative societies through an automated system. The authority added that both the authority and co-op administrations are currently discussing mandating that all laborers working in co-op investment branches should be sponsored by the main investment company.
The authority explained that various violation codes include code 72, which means suspending all the company's transactions except residency cancellation pending deportation; code 73, which means administrative suspension except transfers and residency cancellation pending deportation; and code 71 for non-existing firms or dossiers, cases which are usually subjected to investigation plus permanent suspension. In addition, the authority added that a new measure is currently in use - sending immediate text messages via SMS to employers in case of detecting any violation, which puts an end to paperwork.
The authority also noted that in case inspectors find that a firm is closed despite sponsoring laborers, the firm's file is suspended and legal actions are taken as per articles 10 and 138 of law number 6/2010. "In case the employer requests lifting the suspension, the firm is re-inspected to make sure that it is in operation and the laborers it sponsors work for it," the authority noted, explaining that employers will then sign affidavits that the firm will not be closed.
Meanwhile, well-informed sources told local daily Al-Anbaa that policies of replacing expats with citizens will be implemented according to a new criterion in 2020-2021 - to include graduates of universities with lower academic levels as per the ministry of higher education's updated academic accreditation register. The sources added that graduates of accredited universities who fail to present the equivalence of their degrees and accredit them will be replaced.
The sources added that it would be better for bodies responsible for changing the replacement conditions for the new fiscal year to disregard the date of recruitment to make sure graduates of accredited universities who already got the equivalence of their degrees remain in their positions. Notably, the sources predict that up to 4,000 expats will be terminated when the replacement starts by the beginning of the new fiscal year on April 1, 2020.
Fourth ring road
In other news, official sources at the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) said the plan of repairing streets affected by the rain will remain in progress till the end of the month, adding that a special ameliorated substance is used in the new asphalt layers. The sources added that Fourth Ring Road repairs will conclude this month, while MPW has a plan ready to prevent a recurrence of last year's rain-related mishaps. "All drains in Mangaf tunnel have been opened to prevent water accumulation," the sources said, adding that new drainage canals had been built to prevent the same at Sabah Al-Ahmad City, and that the main drainage grid in Mangaf is also ready. The sources said all other roads and streets will be repaired according to a long-term five-year schedule set between MPW and the contracted companies and contractors.
Unregistered drugs
The Ministry of Health's (MoH) assistant undersecretary for food and medicine control Dr Abdullah Al-Bader said one of his inspection teams detected serious violations at a private clinic in Salmiya, where large quantities of smuggled medications that are not registered with MoH were seized, in addition to other drugs smuggled out of public hospitals and clinics. Bader added that another inspection team found another quantity of unregistered drugs in other clinics, adding that the company selling those drugs was fined and that all the citations are currently subject to MoH's legal affairs investigations pending referral to the public prosecution.
Rent allowance violations
The Public Authority for Housing Welfare submitted a primary report to the parliament concerning the results of investigating housing applications and rent allowance payments. In this regard, official sources said it was noticed that thousands of citizens have housing applications filed in their names without having families, because they divorced before having children. This is a violation, because having a family is one of the authority's conditions.
The report added that after automating links with the Ministry of Interior (MoI), it was found that MoI had withdrawn the citizenship of some applicants and that rent allowance was still being paid to deceased citizens, noting that these cases had been referred to the Public Anti-Corruption Authority for further investigations.
Meanwhile, the housing authority explained that it processed 17,231 transactions in November including 668 new applications and 195 allocations in South Sabah Al-Ahmad and Jaber Al-Ahmad cities. The authority added that 473 citizens had filed attestation applications, responded to 2,150 inquiries, issued 4,790 'to whom it may concern' certificates to be sent to the Credit Bank and processed 1,033 rent allowance applications.
MP's immunity
The legislative affairs committee rejected a request to lift MP Ahmad Al-Fadhl's parliamentary immunity to investigate two e-crimes, another proposal by MP Mohammed Al-Huwailah to pay Kuwaiti teaching staff members at the education and awqaf ministries and Kuwaitis working as librarians, technicians and social workers in various government bodies special rewards and allowances, in addition to writing off Credit Bank loans given to citizens who had died.
By A Saleh