KUWAIT: HH thePrime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah yesterday made a limitedreshuffle to his Cabinet after four ministers resigned, including the oilminister, and their resignations were accepted by HH the Amir. An officialstatement said the Amir accepted the resignations of Minister of Oil andElectricity and Water Bakheet Al-Rasheedi, Minister of Social Affairs and LaborHind Al-Sabeeh, Minister of Public Works Hossam Al-Roumi and Minister of Statefor National Assembly Affairs Adel Al-Khorafi.
All the resignedministers were under the threat of being grilled by lawmakers over allegationsof corruption and mismanagement. The prime minister appointed four new membersto the Cabinet to replace the outgoing ministers and moved some portfolios toexisting ministers.
The new ministersare: Minister of Oil, Electricity and Water Khaled Al-Fadhel, an academic and anewcomer to the political field; Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs andState Minister for Municipality Fahd Al-Rasheedi, who is also a newcomer to thepolitical field and hails from the Rasheedi tribe, one of the largest bedouin tribesin the country. Saad Al-Kharraz was appointed Minister of Social Affairs andLabor while Mariam Al-Aqeel was appointed Minister of State for EconomicAffairs. All the members are newcomers to the Cabinet as well as to politics.
In addition,Minister of Commerce and Industry Khaled Al-Roudhan was also given the servicesministry and Minister of State for Housing Jenan Bushehri was given the publicworks portfolio, while Justice Minister Fahd Al-Afasi was given responsibilityfor the ministry of state for National Assembly affairs. The new changes willspare the prime minister threats by lawmakers to grill those ministers becauseall the resigned ministers have been threatened to be grilled by MPs.
Sabeeh, Khorafiand Rasheedi were all grilled - the first two more than once - while Roumi wasunder the threat of being questioned over his ministry's failure to face heavyrains. A number of MPs gave a cautious welcome to the new ministers andreshuffled Cabinet, but they warned that they will continue to monitor theperformance of the Cabinet.
MP Riyadh Al-Adasani welcomed removing some ministers but said that he will continue to see how the new ministers carry out their duties. MP Omar Al-Tabtabaei praised the prime minister for accepting the resignation of the oil minister and warned that the new oil minister has a big task ahead of him. Tabtabaei and MP Abdulwahab Al-Babtain grilled Rasheedi in May over alleged squandering of public funds by top oil executives. The government formed an independent committee to probe the allegations and found some of them were true, the lawmaker said. Tabtabaei also warned the commerce minister that a senior official in the ministry was dealing with suspicious people and urged him to investigate.
By B Izzak