Expat hires queried on Customs bribery report

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KUWAIT CITY, Dec 2: Exercising their supervisory role over the executive authority, several MPs submitted queries to various ministers on Sunday including MP Sadoun Hamaad who cited a local newspaper’s report about a high-ranking consultant at the General Administration of Customs who allegedly received KD 20,000 in exchange for allowing the entry of three containers of illegal commodities.

According to the report, the consultant is a non-Kuwaiti so the MP asked Finance Minister Naif Al-Hajraf about the criteria for appointing consultants. He requested for detailed documentation about high ranking consultants in the administration including their credentials and experiences.

He also wants to know the extent of the administration’s need for foreign consultants and reason for hiring expatriates instead of Kuwaitis for this post.

Moreover, due to the huge crowd in the Medical Insurance Department recently which caused a number of problems in the Ministry of Health and put the country’s health services in bad light, MP Abdulwahab Al-Babtain submitted queries to Minister of Health Bassil Al- Sabah.

He asked about the number of medical insurance offices throughout the country, if there is an emergency protocol in dealing with such an issue, and steps taken to prevent recurrence of the problem. On the other hand, prompted by the recent announcement of Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) about its success in correcting 77 percent of the State Audit Bureau’s notifications and warnings since 2008, MP Khaleel Abdullah Abul submitted queries to Minister of Education and Higher Education Hamid Mohammad Al-Azmi in his capacity as member of KISR’s Board of Trustees.

The MP requested for copies of notifications and warnings that the bureau has given to KISR since 2008 and the latter’s responses. Furthermore, MP Salah Khourshed submitted queries to Minister of Public Works and State Minister for Municipality Affairs Husaam Al-Roumi regarding the new Um Al-Hemaan desalination plant. He wants to know total cost of the design contract, the contractor in charge of execution, agreed completion date, and impact of the new plant on the existing ones.

By Ahmed Al-Naqeeb Arab Times Staff

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