Anti-corruption efforts target armament deals

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KUWAIT CITY, Oct 15: MP Dawoud Marafie has submitted parliamentary questions to the Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Essa Al-Kandari and to the Minister of Finance Fahad Al-Jarallah about the total number of employees in each ministry including the full-time employees, the employees appointed on contract basis, Kuwaiti employees, non-Kuwaiti employees whose mothers are Kuwaitis, illegal residents (Bedoun) and non-Kuwaiti employees.

He said he wanted to know the real demand for employees in each ministry, the number of Kuwaiti graduates who have been appointed in each ministry from the year 2010 till date and the annual strategy of the ministries to hire new graduates. He asked if there were any vacant supervisory positions and if these vacancies had been advertised. The lawmaker wanted to know the number of Kuwaiti and non-Kuwaiti consultants in the ministers’ offices, the undersecretaries’ offices and the assistant undersecretaries’ offices.

Meanwhile, MP Adel Al-Damkhi, who is the chairman of the fact-finding committee formed by the National Assembly to investigate the alleged corruption in the armament deals concerning the Eurofighter and Caracal helicopters, stressed that the report on this issue will be ready soon and will be referred to the National Assembly by the beginning of the upcoming parliamentary term. Al-Damkhi disclosed that there are some parties who are involved in the issue and have been attempting to interfere in the investigations with the aim of changing the conclusion of the committee. He indicated that the committee had earlier called for suspending some senior officials in the relevant institutions because of their attempts to divert the investigations, adding that the committee is working hard to prevent their illegal interference in the investigations. The lawmaker said those individuals resorted to using fake accounts on social media to distort the facts but such attempts will not succeed.

Also, MP Adel Al-Damkhi hailed the popular, parliamentary, and governmental position towards the Palestinian issue and the support for the right of the Palestinian people to resist the Israeli occupation. He praised the statement issued recently by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Talal Khalid Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah through which he affirmed the constant and strong stance of Kuwait based on the religion and Kuwait Constitution.

MP Al-Damkhi also hailed Sheikh Talal Al-Sabah for highlighting the Amiri Decree issued in 1967 which considers Kuwait to be in a status of war with the Zionists, stressing that the decree is still valid. In Cairo, a number of Kuwaitis affirmed on Saturday that actual and practical actions and steps were needed to support the Palestinian people in their struggle against the oppressive Israeli occupation regime and its inhumane treatment of them.

This came in statements to KUNA by Kuwaiti National Assembly MPs Khaled Al-Otaibi, Ahmad Lari, and Hamdan Al-Azmi who are in Cairo partaking in Arab Parliament meetings. Kuwait will always stand against the Israeli occupation of Palestine, the chief and main cause for the Arab and Kuwaiti people, said MP Al-Otaibi. Al-Otaibi revealed that Kuwait had proposed that the Arab Parliament meeting should be held under the title of “In support of Gaza” due to the war of extermination against the Palestinian people. Arab and Muslim nations should stand against the treatment of their Palestinian brethren, affirmed Al-Otaibi who condemned nations standing solidarity with the oppressive Israeli regime and its actions against innocent Palestinians.

Likewise, fellow Kuwaiti lawmaker MP Ahmad Lari said that the Kuwaiti leadership had and would continue to support the Palestinian people and their just cause regionally and internationally against the Israeli occupiers. Since the launch of “Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” back in October seventh, Arab Parliaments had made it clear Palestine was an important issue to all Arabs, said Lari who indicated that Kuwaiti had issued a statement in support of Palestine and its people.

Also speaking on his part, MP Al-Azmi said that the current operation against the Israeli occupiers was a natural reaction to decades of injustice against the Palestinian people. He commended the resistance of the Palestinian people and at the same time condemned the West’s support of atrocities committed by the Israeli occupiers. Al-Azmi said that no peace would be achieved without returning what was rightfully owned by the Palestinian people in terms of their land and also Jerusalem.

In another development, the National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun received the Ambassador of Kuwait to Argentina Abdulaziz Mohammad Al-Beshr. In addition, the Deputy National Assembly Speaker MP Muhammad Al-Mutair received the human resources consultant Dr. Abdullah Fahd Al-Abduljader who gifted Al-Mutair with a copy of his recently released book titled “Kuwaiti Consultant.. Observer of Economic and Administrative Events.”

The parliament’s coordination committee consisting of 48 MPs held a meeting on Sunday at the National Assembly building in the presence of the National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun and Deputy National Assembly Speaker MP Muhammad Al-Mutair. The meeting was held based on an invitation from MP Hassan Jawhar to add the final touches to the prior bills and issue them in the upcoming parliamentary term in the prelude to be referred to the ministerial coordination committee.

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