KUWAIT: TheMinistry of Commerce and Industry (MoCI) recently suspended the licenses andactivities of three real estate companies and eight managers over charges ofviolating law number 106/2013 pertaining money laundering and terrorismfunding, and the ministerial resolutions numbers 37/2013 and 430/2016pertaining the regulation of real estate brokerage. The decision also bannedrenewing any of the suspects' licenses pending the final sentence in the casefiled against them.

Employmentsuspended

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

72 expats out

Despite theshortage of expat employees Kuwait Municipality already suffers from, namelyengineers, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) insists on imposing thereplacement policy on those jobs for the fiscal year 2019-2020, as it recentlyrequested terminating the contracts of 28 out of 179 engineers, Al-Qabasreported yesterday. A letter was sent by the CSC pointing out that 72 out of atotal of 536 expat employees in various departments have to be laid off, addingthat a study had been made in collaboration with the finance ministry in thisregard. Notably, the total workforce of Municipality is 5,522 - 4,986 citizensand 530 non-Kuwaitis.

Tendersinvestigated

Well-informedsources said prior to stepping down, the former minister of public works HossamAl-Roumi issued a decision on forming a new committee headed by civil lawprofessor Dr Ibrahim Al-Humoud to investigate the procedures followed onqualifying contractors for tenders offered for bidding by the Public Authorityfor Roads and Transport (PART). The sources added that the investigated tendersinclude building roads, bridges and sewers in South Surra, maintaining theregional highway and the construction and maintenance of roads to serve T4.Meanwhile, Ministry of Public Works' personnel affairs committee decidedpostponing the tests for leading positions scheduled for next Wednesday withoutrescheduling them pending appointing an undersecretary.

Model farms

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

Residential city

Well-informedsources said that the Public Authority for Housing Welfare has not yet receivedthe approvals needed from relevant bodies such as the oil ministry, publicworks ministry, electricity and water ministry and the traffic departmentconcerning allocating land plots in southern Um Al-Haiman to build aresidential city.

By A Saleh