WE have been smart traders from the beginning because before the exploration of oil, trading was the backbone of Kuwait’s economy ... foreign goods used to be exported to Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq from Kuwait legally or illegally (smuggling). The Kuwaitis and people of these countries use to smuggle all kinds of goods including tea, nylon socks, cigarettes, textiles and even Swiss watches. Western products used to enter Kuwait through their exclusive agents before being transferred to neighboring countries in early days. This was the situation before the rise of other Gulf countries, which were considered villages compared to Kuwait and its important trade seaports.

The current generation is the inheritors of their grandfathers who practiced trading and won exclusive agencies for commercial trade, as they involved themselves in businesses using different techniques.
However, it is not strange if the inheritors - today’s generation - have the same behavior and smartness of their grandfathers in business and trade.
 

After the liberation of Kuwait from Saddam Hussein’s occupation of the country, the liberating US forces depended on Kuwaiti companies for the majority of their services for the US Army in Iraq because the army depended on outsourcing all the services except the military ones.
Kuwaiti companies won contracts to provide services like foodstuff to army bases in Iraq and Kuwait. The Kuwaiti companies won the biggest tender of all time, to build the biggest US Embassy building in the world. These projects cost billions of dollars but the firm which has the contract is currently facing difficulties with the American government, after the US government discovered that contracts had been overpriced. I don’t know how the contracts are being revised after these had been approved and executed. But it seems that everything is permitted in the US.

Even if the companies hoodwinked the US government through overpricing, this could have only happened with the assistance of high-ranking officers in the Pentagon and the State Department.
This overpricing was allowed to happen until the contracts were reviewed by a judicial committee. The companies were sued for cheating the US Treasury. The Kuwaiti companies that supplied services like foodstuff to the US Army and the company that built the embassy are being investigated by the US judiciary, and the court may ask them to pay up millions of dollars for the overpriced contracts. The coming days will uncover the fate of these companies.
 

The concerned US department for accountability and auditing did not hold the US Defense Secretary accountable. Also, the Secretary of State was not held responsible for not monitoring the contracts and giving their employees the chance to misuse their immunity at the expense of the US Treasury. The companies took advantage of such neglect in the US government to earn more money. After all, businessmen will not let any chance to make money pass.
 

We have to tell these stories to our parliamentarians who created chaos in the country by grilling the Minister of Interior Affairs for allegedly swindling KD 5 million. However, not a single penny from that KD 5 million went into the pocket of the minister. We know that it filled the pockets of Kuwaiti businessmen. Some people may have deceived the US government, but let them not try to deceive the Kuwaiti people.

alialbaghli@hotmail.com