Court overrules former minster's decision to dissolve charity

KUWAIT: Power consumption rates during peak hours yesterday reached 13,200 megawatts, driven by the rising temperatures, according to Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) reports, which marks new hikes after consumption had dropped to 12,000 megawatts during the past few days. Although summer has only officially started this week, Kuwait has already recorded temperatures of nearly 50 C degrees on several days since the beginning of the month, while temperatures are expected to continue rising through July and August. UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) experts said last week that Kuwait recorded the world's highest temperature in recent years; 53.9 C degrees in Mitribah northeast the country on July 21, 2016. Meanwhile, informed sources said minister of electricity and water and minister of oil Khaled Al-Fadhel signed the excellent performance bonus lists and that that the bonuses had been deposited in employees' bank accounts.

New teachers
The Ministry of Education (MoE) finished contracting 202 new teachers of French, physical education, mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, English and geology from Tunisia and Jordan, well-informed educational sources said. Meanwhile, the committee dispatched to Jordan failed to hire the required 175 teachers due to the low salaries MoE offers, the sources said, noting that another committee will soon be dispatched to Palestine after getting the needed security approvals. The sources said only 100 teachers were hired locally and that this number is very low compared to the 780 new teachers required for the new school year. Meanwhile, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) promised to study the cases of teachers whose qualifications are different from those mentioned in their work permits individually and not collectively as MoE had demanded.
In the meantime, informed sources at the CSC said all government bodies had finished inputting their employees' performance assessment reports, adding that only three remain, including MoE, which finished 85 percent of the reports. The sources explained that the delay was mainly in public schools, where implementing the new integrated assessment system caused some confusion due to having to input piles of manual documents of sick leaves. The sources also expected finishing the reports by the beginning of July, and expected that with the new system, over 40 percent of state employees will not get the excellent performance bonuses.

Charity restored
Director of Al-Salam Charity Jassem Al-Oun hailed the verdict by the appeals court yesterday in favor of Al-Salam Charity Society, noting that this sentence confirmed the soundness and legality of the society's activities. Oun added that the former minister of social affairs and labor Hind Al-Subaih had made haphazard, unstudied abusive decisions ignoring the law, which led to dissolving many NGOs. "Subaih's violation of the law has done great harm to charity and voluntary work in Kuwait," he added, pointing out that the court had proved this by passing two consecutive verdicts cancelling Subaih's "unjust decision."

Railway project
The GCC railway project will offered for bidding through the public-private-partnership (PPP) system, Public Authority for Roads and Transportation's (PART) Acting Director Soha Ashkanani said, adding that the project's execution will be supervised by PART. In a letter addressing Kuwait Municipality Director Ahmad Al-Manfouhi concerning his proposal that PART be subjected to the Ministry if Interior (MoI), Ashkanani stressed that PART had been established in 2014 in compliance with law 115/2014 to run a modern, safe and economic land transport system and supervise and maintain it according to the state's vision, adding that PART has all the jurisdictions and liabilities that help it achieve sustainable development. Ashkanani added that many countries have separate road authorities and that it was not its responsibility to respond to such proposals.

National identity centers
The Ministry of Interior (MoI) is scheduled to launch six national identity centers by the beginning of July, said security sources, noting that the new centers will mark a new phase after e-connection with bodies concerned with national identities from birth to death. The sources added that the new centers in Shamiya, Ishbelia, Saad Al-Abdullah, West Mishref, Adan and Fahd Al-Ahmad will include special counters for nationality and passports, e-passports, Public Authority of Civil Information and Ministry of Health to provide all identity-related services to Kuwaitis.

By A Saleh