KUWAIT CITY, May 2: The parliamentary committee investigating the so-called multimillion deposit scandal Wednesday met with representatives of some local banks including the Kuwait Finance House, the Burgan Bank, the Gulf Bank, the Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait and Kuwait International Bank to listen to their side of the story.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting committee chairman MP Musallam Al-Barrak said the committee members sought some answers to queries and technical information concerning financial deposits.
He added the banks representatives unanimously confirmed the Central Bank of Kuwait has the right to request any information related to deposits either from persons, institutions or any particular group including the MPs.

They also pointed out that the Central Bank also has the right to demand files about MPs to know details of the deposits and that they don’t have any option but to respond to the request.

Al-Barrak added the banks representatives testified under oath before the committee except the representatives from the Burgan Bank and the Kuwait International Bank who refused to do so. Therefore the committee has decided to invite the board chairmen and the managers of these two banks to attend the committee meeting on Sunday, May 13, 2012.

In another development, Al-Barrak disclosed the committee has decided to invite businessman Mahmoud Haidar to attend the committee’s meeting next week after serious information about him surfaced through a renowned writer and lawyer Mohammed Abdul-Kader Al-Jassem

He explained the committee met with Al-Jassem based on two letters sent to the Speaker of the Parliament by MP Abdul-Hameed Dashti demanding Al-Jassem be summoned after he alleged said during one of his seminars that there a mediator MP who pays money to MPs for political favors.
Al-Barrak added when Al-Jassem was asked about the issue, he denied having made such a statement. He added what he said was there is a ‘mediator’ and not a ‘mediator MP’.

Al-Barrak said Al-Jassem gave the committee some serious and provocative information.

He added the committee will seek to ascertain the veracity of information given by Jassem because the information is very serious and therefore the committee has decided to invite Mahmoud Haidar to its meeting next week to face the allegations contained in the statement of Al-Jassem.

Al-Barrak noted Al-Jassem also told the committee that some of the MPs who were summoned during the initial stages of the investigation had admitted to receiving money from Mahmoud Haidar and that this information is critical and necessary action can be taken only after hearing what Haidar has to say in this regard.

On another note, Al-Barrak disclosed the committee had asked some government institutions about information on ownership (properties) by members of the two authorities - legislative and the executive — which include shares, farms, lands and private and investment houses, as well as that of their wives and children from April 1, 2009 until Nov 6, 2011.

Barrak explained the demands made by the committee come as part of its mandate to investigate this issue, stressing the Committee is waiting to obtain this information within two weeks.

In another development, head of the committee investigating the scandal of financial transfers, MP Dr Faisal Al-Mislem disclosed Wednesday upon request of the Parliament, hat he paid a visit Monday to the Foreign Ministry building to look into documents to get full answers needed by the committee in its investigation.

Musallam said during his visit to complete the investigation he asked the Foreign Ministry about all documents related to administrative process for remittances made by the ministry upon instructions of the Diwan of former Prime Minister or one of its employees.

He disclosed during the visit he met the Director of Financial and Administrative Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Assistant undersecretary for Foreign Affairs and Supervisor of missions, embassies Affairs and they gave answers to many queries.

He added the committee has sent invitations to the head of the Audit Bureau and the Prime Minister to attend the committee meeting next Saturday.

Meanwhile, Chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly Mohammed Saqr said Wednesday the meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled was good.

He said the minister briefed on the results of the Arab Summit in Baghdad and the results of the meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs regarding the situation in Syria and the Gulf region “and we also discussed about the issues of next meetings.”

He added the minister was largely cooperative with the committee. The committee also discussed with him the results of the meetings of the Kuwait-Iraq Committee which was held last Sunday in Baghdad.
Meanwhile, MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei said Wednesday the current legislative term will not end until anti-corruption and integrity laws are approved.

He was speaking at a parliament symposium on the UK parliamentary experience, organized by the Legal and Legislative Committee in collaboration with the Kuwait Transparency Society.

Al-Tabtabaei said the committee is considering 37 draft laws pertaining to anti-corruption, conflict of interest and financial disclosure.

He explained that all forms of corruption within financial, administrative and political sectors of Arab countries have led to the so-called Arab Spring. “Kuwait is no exception, therefore National Assembly candidates in February have stressed the need for anti-corruption laws,” he stated.

On his part, MP Abdulrahman Al-Anjari added that corruption can be found in all countries; “however, the rate of corruption varies from one society to another. While in the UK and USA corruption can come from political parties, in Kuwait corruption is committed by individuals.”

Al-Anjari explained that the institutional framework of political parties have measures to tackle any moral deviation or corruption before they become public scandals. “However, self-censorship must be practiced by lawmakers in Kuwait’s National Assembly to ensure the legislative process is functioning correctly,” he stated. 

Meanwhile, MP Mohammed Al-Juwaihel disclosed on Wednesday he discovered another case of alleged brutality at the Interior Ministry, “similar to the (torture-death) case of Kuwaiti citizen Mohammed Al-Maimouni.”

Less than a week before the scheduled grilling of Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Humoud Al-Sabah, Al-Juwaihel said that “the body of Kuwaiti citizen Nawaf Al-Azmi was found in the fridge of the ministry’s criminal evidence department with signs of abuse.”

“His family spent weeks searching for him in hospitals and police stations but discovered that he had died and his body was in the fridge of the ministry’s criminal evidence department for two months,” he said.

Al-Juwaihel further added that “the investigations officer ordered the immediate burial of Nawaf Al-Azmi and that the ministry will not reveal the date they received the body.”

On another note, head of the Legal and Legislative Committee MP Waleed Al-Tabtabaei disclosed that the amendments to Article 111 of the Penal Code pertaining to capital punishment for blasphemy will include “the monitoring of charity organizations that violate the law.”

Furthermore, a number of lawmakers filed a draft law Wednesday pertaining to consumer protection to ensure providers and advertisers of commodities follow the required standards. The draft law was presented by MPs Abdulrahman Al-Anjari, Jamaan Al-Harbash, Faisal Al-Yahya, Riyadh Al-Adsani and Shaya Al-Shaya.