UCCS requests to waive off its shares in Al-Durra Company

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KUWAIT CITY, Nov 25: Ministry of Social Affairs received an official letter from the Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies requesting to waive its shares in the Al-Durra Domestic Labor Recruitment Company after three years of its establishment, reports Aljarida daily.

After more than three years since the establishment of Al-Durra Domestic Labor Recruitment Company, the company failed to achieve the desired goal in terms of expanding the circle of countries that export domestic labor force and creating new markets in addition to the current limited ones. The company also failed to fill the severe shortage that the market is currently suffering from, or reduce the costs of the recruitment process.

According to sources, the Ministry of Social Affairs, represented by the National Cooperative Projects Committee, recently received an official letter from the Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies, requesting to waive its shares in the company.

The percentage of the union in Al-Durra is the largest among the shares of the other four entities, which are the Public Institution for Social Security, the Public Authority for Minors Affairs, Kuwait Airways Corporation, and the Kuwait Investment Authority.

The sources explained that the approval of the union’s Board of Directors to waive its share in the company, which would result in its withdrawal from its Board of Directors, is a clear indication of the disastrous failure that the company has reached. The union’s continued membership incurs additional losses in addition to the actual losses which it is currently sustaining, as it has hit the value of the capital, due to mismanagement, lack of vision, failure to operate the company, as well as the existing conflicts caused by some parties upon the hijacking of its leadership.

The sources said, “The company’s capital amounts to KD 3 million, deposited in Warba Bank. The union acquires 60 percent of it, equivalent to KD 1.8 million. The law No. 69/2015 issued for the establishment of a closed joint stock company for the recruitment of domestic labor force decided that the shares should be allocated as follows – 60 percent to the Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies, and 40 percent to be distributed among the other four bodies equally at ten percent each.

Also, the sources stated that the aforementioned set of reasons urged the majority of citizens to demand the cancellation of the company, which has disappointed them and failed to fulfill its promises to provide domestic workers and reduce the costs of recruiting them to KD 400. This is besides the weakness of the foreign contracts that it reached before the COVID-19 crisis, from 10 to 15 requests per month, in exchange for private domestic workers offices bringing in hundreds.

In another development, the Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies agreed to a proposal to increase the fees for price circulars collected from companies through the union’s electronic portal, which would contribute to increasing the union’s revenues.

According to the proposal, the value of the request to obtain the circulation of new or complementary items or update data will be increased from KD 6 to KD 8, in addition to an increase in the value of the request to obtain a price increase circular or price fixation from KD 7 to KD 10.

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