Promises of Al-Rubaia’an

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The former academician, Essam Al-Rubaia’an began his work last Thursday as the new head of the Civil Service Commission, the body concerned with civil employment, which was embroiled in a lot of controversy over the past ten or twenty years.

Sensing this confusion, the new director told Al-Qabas during a tour of the CSC departments that he will start his new job and he has a clear work strategy (I don’t really know when and how it became clear, but we will have good intentions).

 He also indicated that his priorities are summarized in Kuwaitization of jobs in the CSC, the abolition of paper transactions, simplification of procedures and that he will soon present a strategic vision on human development for nationals.

What Mr. Al-Rubaia’an has said is crystal clear and beautiful, and we hope that he will succeed in achieving his plans and aspirations, and that the government will enable him to implement his strategy although I suspect that the CSC needs it more than it needs radical internal reforms.

When a government official takes over his job in Kuwait, he is asked to provide the Anti-Corruption Authority a statement showing all his movable and immovable assets, and then compare them with what he has after the end of his tenure and holding him accountable or questioning him if need be.

For information only, since the establishment of Integrity Authority, we have not heard, until today, that it referred any government employee to investigation or prosecution as a result of the inflation of his balances. Does this mean that the entire government administration is free of corruption, and that they are angels?

Mr. Al-Rubaia’an made a set of optimistic promises related to what he intends to do in his new job, specifically presenting a new work strategy, Kuwaitization of jobs, canceling or reducing paper transactions, and replacing them with electronic transactions, while simplifying procedures.

But what we heard from the new chief, with all due respect to him, we have already heard it from dozens of officials who came before him over the past twenty years, at least.

Perhaps some of them tried to implement what he promised, and succeeded a little or a lot, and perhaps did nothing, were deceitful as they promised reforms to silence their opponents, knowing that the Kuwaiti collective memory is weak, and soon forgotten.

Accordingly, we wish Mr. Al-Rubaia’an, who drew my attention not to use the title Dr. in front of his name in his tweets, to provide the public with clear numbers related to the current situation, and to hold a press conference explaining what he intends to do.

This is to be followed by press conferences showing what he intends to do, to be followed by press conferences to tell us what he has done, the steps he has taken in developing the CSC, the number of ‘loaned’ employees who have been laid off, and the processes that a visitor can now complete electronically, not on paper.

After three or five years of assigning him the task, and this will pass quickly, we will not know what he has done, and what happened in this sensitive apparatus, and whether he succeeded in achieving what he promised, and with what percentage?

This is a sample of the desired reforms, not taking to the street, and the official meeting the visitors and achieving their demands, and the director or minister meeting the protesters and fulfilling their promises of salary increases and bonuses, and reducing working hours.

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By Ahmad alsarraf

This news has been read 17157 times!