KUWAIT CITY, July 26: Member of the Public Amenities Committee at the Parliament MP Naji Abdulhadi has accused the Kuwait Municipality of deliberately delaying procedures for the awarding of tenders to qualified cleaning companies to justify its intention to extend the old contracts.
Claiming the Municipality’s policy in handling contracts with cleaning companies is questionable and it lacks transparency, Abdulhadi stressed the need to hand over the management of sanitary works to the private sector. He alleged the Municipality has done nothing but to put Kuwait on the list of GCC countries with the highest production of waste and least expenditure on sanitation.
Commenting on speculations that the Municipality has suspended procedures for granting contracts to new cleaning companies due to the high cost of their services, Abdulhadi argued the bids are high because the companies need to meet the new set of conditions, such as the provision of GPS-assisted machines, modern equipment, and increasing the salaries of workers from KD40 to KD60 in accordance with the new labor law in the private sector. He demanded the privatization of this sector, strict implementation of the new labor law, and granting the increment also to the existing workers, not only the new recruits.
Abdulhadi urged the Municipality to get rid of the bureaucratic system and give the private sector a chance to prove its ability in maintaining the cleanliness of the country, recycling waste material, and protecting the environment. He also emphasized the need to update the specifications in the cleaning tenders in line with the vision of Kuwait to become an international financial and commercial center. He said he first realized the need to privatize this sector through the establishment of a joint stock private company, which will own 50 percent of the shares and the other half will be distributed to the citizens, when he was still a member of the Municipality Council. He believes the government’s role should be limited to supervision or monitoring to stop the wastage of public money.