KUWAIT: The
Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) recently suspended the licenses and
activities of three real estate companies and eight managers over charges of
violating law number 106/2013 pertaining money laundering and terrorism
funding, and the ministerial resolutions numbers 37/2013 and 430/2016
pertaining the regulation of real estate brokerage. The decision also banned
renewing any of the suspects' licenses pending the final sentence in the case
filed against them.

Employment
suspended

Kuwait Petroleum
Corporation's (KPC) acting CEO Waleed Al-Bader issued a decision suspending all
forms of non-approved employment, deputizing and promotion decisions for all
positions in KPC and its subsidiary companies until further notice. The
employment suspension is believed to extend until a new CEO for the corporation
is named, succeeding former CEO Nizar Al-Adsani whose tenure ended recently.

72 expats out

Despite the
shortage of expat employees Kuwait Municipality already suffers from, namely
engineers, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) insists on imposing the
replacement policy on those jobs for the fiscal year 2019-2020, as it recently
requested terminating the contracts of 28 out of 179 engineers, Al-Qabas
reported yesterday. A letter was sent by the CSC pointing out that 72 out of a
total of 536 expat employees in various departments have to be laid off, adding
that a study had been made in collaboration with the finance ministry in this
regard. Notably, the total workforce of Municipality is 5,522 - 4,986 citizens
and 530 non-Kuwaitis.

Tenders
investigated

Well-informed
sources said prior to stepping down, the former minister of public works Hossam
Al-Roumi issued a decision on forming a new committee headed by civil law
professor Dr Ibrahim Al-Humoud to investigate the procedures followed on
qualifying contractors for tenders offered for bidding by the Public Authority
for Roads and Transport (PART). The sources added that the investigated tenders
include building roads, bridges and sewers in South Surra, maintaining the
regional highway and the construction and maintenance of roads to serve T4.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Public Works' personnel affairs committee decided
postponing the tests for leading positions scheduled for next Wednesday without
rescheduling them pending appointing an undersecretary.

Model farms

Although Kuwait
Municipality had already contacted the Public Authority for Agricultural
Affairs and Fish Resources (PAAAFR) so that it could take over the
nine-square-kilometer 'F2' site in Wafra to build model farms, horse-rearing
stables and a services area, PAAAFR is still avoiding taking it over. Kuwait
Municipality's deputy director for Kuwait structure affairs Mohammed Al-Zobi
had contacted PAAAFR last December requesting the dispatch of a representative
to check with Kuwait Municipality's land survey department.

Residential city

Well-informed
sources said that the Public Authority for Housing Welfare has not yet received
the approvals needed from relevant bodies such as the oil ministry, public
works ministry, electricity and water ministry and the traffic department
concerning allocating land plots in southern Um Al-Haiman to build a
residential city.

By A Saleh