KUWAIT CITY, Oct 2: Opposition MP Faisal Al-Muslim announced on Sunday that the Development and Reform Bloc and the Popular Action Bloc will submit their grilling request against HH the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on Thursday, Oct 13, before the start of the new legislative season.

It is yet unclear whether the National Action Bloc will join their opposition counterparts in the interpellation against the prime minister, but some of its members have expressed their support. Al-Muslim said the interpellation will question the prime minister on government negligence in its investigation of the million-dinar deposit scandal.

Furthermore, the anti-government members of parliament and political youth organization ‘Nahj’ are increasing their movements against the prime minister with plans to hold another rally on Wednesday Oct. 5. MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei said the rally will express the national alliance’s refusal of corruption within the legislative and executive authorities and will call for the approval of anti-corruption laws and financial disclosure of all parliament and government officials. 

On another note, Al-Tabtabaei urged the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Iraq, Ali Al-Momen, to deny accusations by Iraq that the Kuwait prime minister has attempted to bribe Iraqi government officials with money and expensive gifts in return for overlooking the construction of Mubarak Al-Kabir Port.
Allegedly, the bribes were given to the Iraqi ministers of foreign affairs and transport and were discovered from a memo sent by the transport minister to Al-Momen refusing the bribe. Al-Tabtabaei said the accusations are very serious yet MPs do not trust the Kuwaiti government’s response, hinting towards an official questioning of the prime minister.

Draft
Meanwhile, the Legal and Legislative Committee is waiting to receive the anti-corruption draft laws formulated by the government before resuming discussions on the proposals, said committee Rapporteur MP Maasouma Al-Mubarak on Sunday.

Speaking to the press, Al-Mubarak said it is not fitting to discuss the laws presented by the legislative authority without the proposals by its executive counterpart, which will also include financial disclosure proponents. She added that the committee has met with Ministry of Justice representatives on Saturday to discuss 17 proposals and that they assured the submission of their proposals this week, therefore the committee will resume discussions next Sunday Oct. 9 in that regard.

Al-Mubarak expressed her hope that the government will not further delay those discussions with tardiness. She noted that the committee will invite the minister of finance and the Central Bank governor to discuss amendments to the money laundering law.

For her part, Al-Mubarak condemned the accusations of bribery directed at His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah, who was accused of bribing Iraqi officials to stand in favor of Mubarak Al-Kabir Port. She said that the accusation is one of the negative influences of the current million-dinar deposits scandal and political instability in Iraq and Kuwait. Al-Mubarak added that it was wise to put a stop to these accusations as some Iraqi political entities are attempting to use this instability to their advantage.

Opposition MP Daifallah Buramiyah, however, said the prime minister will be held accountable if the accusations are verified and questioned the government’s reasons for denying those accusations while being silent on the accusations of being involved in the million-dinar deposit scandal directed at the PM. He said the legislative authority is waiting for a response from the Kuwaiti ambassador to Iraq as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to clarify the situation. Furthermore, the MP accused the government of attempting to put all 50 members of parliament under suspicion with its investigation.

Moreover, MP Mohammed Al-Huwailah urged the minister of oil to increase development and reform in the oil sector by taking advantage of the high prices of oil. He recommended the use of the excess surplus to establish new refineries to support local and external production and work on maintaining and updating old ones.

His request arrives a day after an explosion at an oil refinery in the province of Ahmadi, which took the lives of four Asian workers and injured Kuwaiti firemen. Al-Huwailah said the accident is the result of negligence in the maintenance of refineries in the oil sector and called for the establishment of an investigative committee in that regard.

Meanwhile, MP Askar Al-Enezi revealed that patients sent abroad for treatment by the ministries of Health, Interior and Justice at the state’s expense are suffering due to extremely high costs of treatment and housing, which have exceeded the government’s monetary allocations. He said that the patients and their accompanying parties have complained that the funds given to them by the government are not enough for them to complete their stays aboard. Al-Enezi urged the government to increase their monetary allocations for patients they send abroad.