KUWAIT CITY, June 15: The National Assembly approved Tuesday four draft bills on the budgets of the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW), Kuwait Municipality, Credit and Savings Bank (CSB), and Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) for fiscal 2010/2011, which started on April 1.
Deliberations on the national budget started on Thursday but the legislature did not vote on the individual budgets at the time due to lack of quorum.
During Tuesday’s session, the budgets of the four institutions were approved with 36 MPs voting in favor, six against and one abstained. The Parliament then referred the draft bills to the government.

Fiscal
A draft bill on the budget of CSB states the projected revenue for fiscal 2010/2011 is KD 85.977 million and expenditures of KD 24.680 million, while that of CBK stipulates expected revenue of KD 25.225 million and expenditures of KD 67.359 million.
The PAHW budget bill stipulates expected revenue of KD 2.605 million and expenditures of KD 276.365 million, while the projected revenue for Kuwait Municipality is KD 148.429 million and expenditures of KD 23.674 million.
However, Parliament Speaker Jassem Al-Khorafi postponed discussions on the budgets of some state departments and agencies due to lack of quorum.
The draft bill estimates the budgets of some independent institutions, including Zakat House, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA), Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) for fiscal 2010/2011 to be KD 112.6 million and expenditures of KD 180.3 million.
Article 3 of the bill stipulates that financing out of the budgets of ministries and state agencies is valued at KD 85.8 million.

A total of KD 2 million will be allocated for Zakat House through the annual financial support from ministerial budgets.
On the other hand, the Public Authority for Social Security (PASS) budget includes revenues of KD 3,141,664 and expenditures of KD 1,644,152.
The budget bill of Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) and its subsidiaries states revenues amounting to KD 12,312,400 and expenditures of KD 11,486,147.
During the discussion, the lawmakers accused the Public Authority for Industry (PAI) of impeding efforts to grant land areas to eligible citizens for the establishment of factories. They also claimed that KUNA lacks experience, while corruption is rampant at Kuwait Ports Authority (KPA) and Kuwait Audit Bureau cannot perform its tasks efficiently.
Corruption
Responding to the lawmakers’ remarks, Minister of Commerce and Industry Ahmad Al-Haroun affirmed PAI has a clear vision for growth, pointing out that industries must be established at a total cost of KD2 billion in the next four years.
On the allocation of land areas, Al-Haroun confirmed there are ongoing talks on the allocation of large industrial plots. He cited as an example the signing of a contract this summer for the infrastructure development in Al-Shadadiya to accommodate 1,062 industrial facilities. He added there are 875 industrial firms currently operating in Kuwait.

Moreover, the MPs also advised PASS to invest its money wisely. They praised the authority for its success in dealing with visitors and earning profits. They called for the immediate completion of the Pensioners Hospital.
The lawmakers criticized the poor performance of Kuwait Investment Authority and KPC, alleging the latter is a failure as most oil companies employ foreigners, instead of Kuwaitis, to fill thousands of vacancies. They added the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) Hospital is old and dilapidated, asserting HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah had earlier given the green light for the construction of a new hospital for the oil sector but nothing has been done until now.
MP Ali Al-Deqbasi lamented Kuwait is an oil-rich country but it has failed to curb the rising pollution levels in Umm Al-Haiman.

In his response to the lawmakers, Minister of Oil and Information Sheikh Ahmad Abdullah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah affirmed the government will take into consideration the 27 recommendations in the Budget Committee report and that of the MPs.
Sheikh Ahmad stressed KPC announces vacancies three times a year, while the establishment of a new hospital has been included in the annual plan, and anyone who might delay the implementation of this project will be held responsible as it has been forwarded to the Central Tenders Committee (CTC).
In the meantime, the Parliament slated a special session for Sunday to discuss the constant power outage in some areas, possible power crisis due to the extremely hot temperatures, and explosion of many transformers due to power overload.
The Reform and Development Bloc presented a proposal on changing the official work hours in ministries from 7:00 am to 12:00 noon during summer to lessen power consumption.