KUWAIT CITY, March 16: Manager of Public Relations and official spokesperson of the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM) Aseel Al-Mazyad said the Authority has suspended the issuance of work permits for co-operative societies until further notice, reports Al-Anba daily.

However, Al-Mazyad added the authority will honor the applications which were submitted before the suspension decision was issued. On the other hand, informed sources said that cooperative societies were obliged to appoint 120 auditors and administrators to eliminate fake employment.

According to reliable sources one of the cooperative societies had 100 employees at one of the central markets but none of them were committed to attendance. The same sources explained members of the board of directors of eight cooperative societies were referred to the Prosecution in 2015 following the discovery of explicit irregularities and manipulation in the shareholders’ funds.

Chairman of the Cooperative Societies Union Dr Saad Al- Shabu affirmed that the union is against the privatization of cooperative societies. He said this during a seminar titled ‘No to privatization of cooperative societies’ which was held Monday evening. Representatives from 48 cooperative societies attended the seminar and expressed their objection to the proposal of privatizing cooperative societies. Dr Al-Shabu stressed that the seminar has nothing to do with the alleged grilling request submitted against the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and State Minister for Planning and Development Affairs Hind Al- Sabeeh.

He clarified that the union met with the minister and suggesting allowing the union to undertake the case of the Dasma and Bneid Al-Gar Cooperative Society for solving the problems. He revealed that the union also met with the National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim and explained the stance of the union against privatization of cooperative societies and investment in central markets.

By Fares Al-Abadan Al-Seyassah Staff and Agencies