South African, Romanian imports to cover shortages in Australian livestock
KUWAIT: Chairman of the Livestock Transport and Trading Company (Al-Mawashi) Bader Al-Subaei said amidst the difficulties the company is facing to import livestock from Australia, it managed to open new markets for importing livestock such as South Africa and Romania. Speaking to reporters following the company's general assembly meeting held with the presence of 88.55 percent of stakeholders, Mawashi CEO Osama Boodai stressed that the company is ready to provide all livestock supplies needed during Ramadan, noting that those supplies are already in stock. Boodai added that prices will remain the same at all company outlets during Ramadan, reminding that the last shipment to arrive from Australia is due on May 31 after Australian suppliers decided halting exports to Kuwait from June to August every year. "The company managed to get PAAAFR approval to import livestock from alternative sources and this is an added value, because we will compare prices in South Africa, Romania and other African countries to those in Australia and will opt for the cheapest," Boodai explained.
Violations
Health Minister Sheikh Dr Bassel Al-Sabah said the health insurance companies contracted to provide medical care for retired citizens through the 'Afiya' program reported some violations in the receipts issued by some private medical centers and clinics. Responding to an inquiry filed by MP Abdulkareem Al-Kandari, Sheikh Bassel denied that any of the aforementioned centers and clinics had issued any fake receipts.
The minister added that the ministry is only responsible for technical supervision of the quality of medical services these centers provide, while checking and revising prices of the services is the responsibility of the contracted company, which are also responsible for contracting with hospitals and clinics providing the service.
Replacement policy
Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Fahd Al-Sholah stressed that the policy of replacing expats with citizens is being applied in all sectors at Kuwait Municipality without exceptions. Sholah added that the municipality will be soon restructured and that staff in various municipal offices in different governorates will soon be reshuffled in collaboration with Director Ahmad Al-Manfouhi. In addition, Sholah said a special committee had been formed to review the current municipality law and suggest new amendments to handle waste, namely construction waste.
Alcohol shipment
In anticipation of MP Khalil Al-Saleh's plans to grill Finance Minister Nayef Al-Hajraf over violations at the custom department, Hajraf responded to a number of parliamentary inquiries starting with one concerning a container that passed Shuwaikh port customs search and was stopped by Ahmadi security on Aug 22, 2017 with a load of alcohol. "This particular container was manually searched because the x-ray device was out of order," Hajraf explained, pointing out that the responsible custom inspector was punished by deducting 10 days of his monthly wage, "which is disciplinary enough because the hidden liquor was hard to find by normal manual inspection," Hajraf underlined.
By A Saleh