Hind Al-Sabeeh

KUWAIT: The public prosecution office yesterday referred a complaint filed against Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Hind Al-Sabeeh to the cabinet's permanent investigations committee. The minister is accused of failure to implement a court order that overturned her decision to dissolve the Sabahiya Co-operative Society's board of directors, the plaintiffs' lawyer Mohammad Al-Ansari said yesterday.

Direct purchase

Inspection teams at the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor (MSAL) will continue to follow up with co-op societies to make sure that they purchase local products directly from producers, assistant undersecretary for co-op soceities' affairs Abdul Aziz Al-Shuaib said. Products' quality and prices had recently improved in some co-ops, Shuaib noted, adding that 94 percent of societies were fully committed to direct purchase of national products.

Private sector employees

Board chairman of the private sector employees' union Saud Al-Hujailan stressed the need to protect the rights of Kuwaiti employees in the private sector and called for avoiding laws that might do them any harm directly or indirectly. Hujailan also called for representing the union in the Public Authority for Manpower's administration so that it can act as the sole legal representative of private sector employees.

Data update

The Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) is currently coordinating with relevant state departments to develop its working systems and update its data regarding citizens waiting to receive their housing units. The data systems department at the authority is working on updating the information of citizens who are waiting for houses, using accurate and detailed information about various applications made to exclude those who do not match conditions. The update process will also include information of citizens unlawfully receiving monthly rent allowances despite changing their marital statuses and getting divorced without having any children - which disqualifies them from receiving the allowance.

Handling services

As the main contractor of the $4.3 billion Kuwait International Airport's Terminal 2 project, Limak Constructions of Turkey is still reviewing the offers it received by the beginning of the year to provide handling services at Kuwait Airport. The final biddings were made last January, while Limak is still receiving offers for other parts of the project such as elevators and escalators.

311 decisions

The Municipal Council recently approved forming a special committee to review 311 decisions made by the temporary committee that had run the council before the recent elections. Those decisions include ones related to land allocations, ownership deeds and projects that have already started, Al-Jarida daily reported yesterday. The council discussed whether those decisions were final or refutable.

In this regard, Municipal Council Member Ali Al-Azmi approved the formation of the committee, especially since the Fatwa and Legislation Department had called for rejecting those decisions. Meanwhile, Kuwait Municipality's legal affairs department's manager Mohammed Al-Jasser  said that the council could approve or reject the decisions, but stressed that they would remain valid nonetheless. "What can be discussed is the decisions which are not final yet," he underlined.

Jasser's opinion was also seconded by Abdullah Al-Mehri, who reminded that, unless the concerned minister requests it, article 67 prevents discussions over a topic that had been already discussed by the council before one year.

In the meantime, Kuwait Municipality Director Ahmad Al-Manfouhi stressed that the decisions concerning approved land allocations, state property deeds and construction licenses have already become legal. He also called for putting into considerations that some lands had already been handed over, projects had been approved and contracts had been signed. "We are talking about 311 decisions made by the committee and have become legal," member Humoud Al-Enezi said. "We must not impede them to avoid problems."

Seven hours

The Ministry of Education (MOE)  recently urged all administrative employees to respect the official working hours set by the Civil Service Commission (CSC) at seven hours starting at 7:30 am until 2:30 pm. This decision covers all employees working at the ministry's headquarters and various educational zone administrations, and does not cover those working in schools and educational institutes, Al-Jarida daily reported yesterday.

In this regard, well-informed sources said that MOE's administrative sector issued a directive with the new timings and distributed it to various sectors and educational areas. The directive mentions the 30-minute grace period for all employees in the morning, in addition allowing female employees to leave fifteen minutes earlier in the afternoon, the sources added.

Further, the sources said that the directive excluded schools and institutes' staff and reminded that their timings are usually determined by resolution 'Number One' concerning work timings and exams in various public and private schools.

In addition, the sources highlighted that MOE had recently linked its biometric access control systems to those at CSC in order to follow up employees' commitment and punctuality, which would be an integral part of employees' annual evaluation upon which the excellent performance bonus, promotions and other incentives would be given.

By A Saleh and Agencies