KUWAIT CITY, March 11: The Legal and Legislative Committee Monday approved several draft bills including salary hikes for state employees and another bill obligating the Civil Service Commission (CSC) to employ job-seekers within six months provided the job-seekers do not reject the offer.

Rapporteur of the Committee Yaqoub Al-Sane explained if the CSC fails to comply with this grace period the job seeker will be paid a salary equivalent to the salary that he/she would earn if case he/she was employed.

He added that the same bill obliges CSC to reduce percentage of expatriate workers in the government sector to 20 percent as maximum and to present a report every six months explaining its procedures in this regard.

On the other hand, the committee has rejected requests from the Public Prosecution to lift parliamentary immunity of MPs Ahmed Al-Mulaifi and Nabil Al-Fadhel, he said.

Speaking after the committee meeting, Al-Sane said the committee has decided not to specify the figure for the proposed salary hike and rather leave this issue to the Finance Committee of the National Assembly during its meeting with the government.

He said the committee also approved a bill to impose strict punishment on traders of spoiled food “especially that the current Kuwaiti policy deals with such traders with leniency due to legislative flaws,” he noted.

He added the bill calls for five years imprisonment and life if the spoiled food results in the death or permanent handicap to the victim.

He said the committee has also approved a bill to increase bonuses and privileges of those who hold Masters and Doctorate degrees in the public and private sectors provided they are registered in the government manpower support.

The committee also approved an amendment to the Kuwait Municipality law to establish a municipality council in every governorate with 10 members in each council who will be elected in accordance with one vote law.

Meanwhile, member of the Finance and Economic Affairs Committee, MP Ahmed Lari said there are indications the committee and the government will come to an agreement so that the state buy the loans that were borrowed by citizens before April 1, 2008.

He added the meeting is scheduled to be held Tuesday and the committee will come out with this agreement in the presence of the Minister of Finance Mustafa Al-Shamali. The law will then be included on the agenda of next Tuesday’s session.

In a related issue, the committee Rapporteur MP Safa Al-Hashim disclosed the Public Institution for Social Security has rejected the proposals which were presented by MPs to reduce the retirement age for men and women.

Speaking after the committee meeting, Al-Hashim said the Institution said it rejected the proposal because if approved it would have had a huge financial impact on the State Treasury in future.

She added the Director-General of the Institution Hamad Al-Humaidhi explained the impact would be huge — in the case of men it would be KD 4.3 billion and KD 2.101 billion for women. As for the pension fund, the financial impact would be KD 2.1 billion and total for both funds would reach more than KD 8 billion.

She indicated the committee proposed to the institution to review the proposal on early retirement fund which is optional for both men and women who wish to retire early.

She added it was agreed that the Institution should review the proposals presented in this regard and respond to the committee with the next two weeks.

She added members of the committee has stressed on the importance of early retirement saying “though it has financial impact, it will be a positive reflection on the society.”

On another issue, Al-Hashim stated the committee will meet on Tuesday with Minister of Finance Al-Shamali and Governor of the Central Bank of Kuwait Mohammed Al-Hashim to address the loan interests issue and come out with an agreed formula to solve it.