MP seeks details on ‘Info’ expat workers

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Hiring process criticized

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 15: MP Fares Al-Otaibi asked Minister of Information and Culture and Minister of State for Youth Affairs Abdulrahman Badah Al-Mutairi to provide him with the following:
■ names, qualification, experience and achievements of expatriate workers at Kuwait TV and Radio Kuwait — whether these workers are under the salaries or wages system;
■ incentives and allowances granted to these expatriate workers;
■ list of expatriate consultants at the Ministry of Information and its subsidiaries;
■ job description of these expatriate consultants and their qualifications which are not found in Kuwaiti applicants;
■ copies of decisions to form committees since the day Al-Mutairi assumed office till date, members of each committee including those from other public institutions and approval of the institutions where they are employed;
■ list of publications which were banned starting from the implementation of law number 3/2006 till date, if this list was provided to importers, and law which the ministry uses as basis for the censorship of movies and television series.

Meanwhile, MP Khalil Al-Saleh has submitted a proposal to allocate five percent for personal interview among the recruitment criteria in public institutions. He argued the current practice of allotting 50 percent for personal interview opened the door for favoritism and lack of transparency. In a relevant development, MP Saadoun Hammad pointed out it is unacceptable that the Ministry of Justice allocates 50 percent for personal interview. He was referring to the recent recruitment process conducted by the Experts Directorate at the ministry. He said the current distribution of scores is 10 percent for the academic certificate, 40 percent for the written exam and 50 percent for the personal interview which usually lasts for minutes only. Hammad called on Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice and Minister of State for Nazaha Enhancement Abdullah Al-Rumi to rectify this error to ensure the recruitment process is impartial and transparent.

To support his argument; the lawmaker cited the case of an applicant who was rejected although the latter obtained a degree in Architectural Engineering from Kansas University in the United States of America, holds a master’s degree, winner of the best research among 500 researches representing 54 countries in Paris, winner of the best research among 600 researches in the North America Architecture Forum, and was named ambassador of youth leaders among 55,000 youths by the Youth Organization. He then stressed the need to amend the recruitment regulations for the competent youths to get the positions they deserve. MP Farz Al-Daihani submitted a proposal to establish a hospital for drug addicts; indicating this hospital will provide medical, social and psychiatric services. He added the hospital will also conduct research on the eradication of drug addiction.

MP Abdulkareem Al-Kandari called for lifting the suspension of unnecessary surgeries in public hospitals. He pointed out this suspension was imposed when the number of covid-19 cases was high, stressing the need to cancel such a decision so the citizens are not forced to go to private hospitals where they are asked to pay exorbitant fees. MP Bader Al-Humaidi forwarded queries to Minister of Interior Sheikh Thamer Ali Al-Sabah about the steps taken to assess citizenship applications since 1995 till date, categories of applicants who were granted citizenship, results of investigations on fake citizenship cases, number individuals granted citizenship for rendering outstanding services for Kuwait, details of such services, total number of individuals who have been granted citizenship since 1995 till date, if citizenship was granted as per the directive of the higher political leadership or according to certain provisions, number of foreign women who were granted Kuwaiti citizenship since 1995 till date, period between the date of their marriage with a Kuwaiti and the date they applied for Kuwaiti citizenship, original nationality of each of these women, and number of widows and divorced women with Kuwaiti husbands who have been granted Kuwaiti citizenship since 1995 till date. By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh Arab Times Staff

This news has been read 46444 times!