KUWAIT CITY, Dec 14: MP Marzouq Al-Khalifa has forwarded queries to Minister of Education Ali Fahd Al-Mudaf about the number of schools in Mutlaa residential area. He wants to know how many of these schools are ready to receive the students and the date of opening. He also asked Minister of of Health Dr Basel Al-Sabah about the number of clinics and hospitals in the area and date of inauguration. He asked Minister of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy and Minister of State for Social Affairs and Societal Development Meshaan Al-Otaibi about the schedule of connecting power and water supplies to the area. MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji forwarded queries to Al-Otaibi about the comments of monitoring institutions on the contracts signed by the Computer Department at the Ministry of Social Affairs from 2017 to 2020. He requested for copies of the comments of the State Audit Bureau (SAB) and Financial Controllers Bureau (FCB), as well as the measures taken by the ministry to address these comments.

Authorizations
He also demanded for copies of the authorizations that the minister issued to the undersecretary and assistant undersecretaries to sign contracts in 2017. He wants to know if they complied with regulations on the maximum amount for which they were authorized to sign. He inquired if the Purchasing Committee at the Computer Department, which was formed by the minister who was in office in 2017 consisted of representatives from the Inspection and Audit Department. He requested for a copy of the report that the Inspection and Audit Department submitted to the minister in 2017. He demanded for copies of the contracts and projects implemented by the Computer Department and the Public Authority for Handicapped Affairs (PAHA) from 2018 to 2021 showing the names of the owners of contracting companies and their commercial licenses.

He asked if any of the owners of these companies is a relative of the minister of social affairs who was in office from 2018 to 2020. He asked for more details like the method of settling the relevant tenders and the contracts signed directly with certain companies without floating public tenders. He requested for information about the retired consultants at the office of the minister from 2018 to 2020, including their curriculum vitae and salaries. He demanded for a copy of the curriculum vitae of the former director of the Computer Department identified only as RN including work experience in the public and private sectors.

Investigations
The lawmaker asked about the reason behind assigning Vedetchri Company to automate services in charities without obtaining approval from the Ministry of Social Affairs and if investigations in this regard were conducted. He asked if Al-Dar Company controls the data of the beneficiaries of public support provided by the ministry, if the company is operated through servers located outside Kuwait, number of the company’s engineers working in the ministry and if their sponsorship is under the company. MP Yousef Al-Ghareeb submitted a proposal to hand over land in West Hadiya to the Public Authority of Housing Welfare (PAHW) as one way of solving the housing problem.

In a relevant development, MP Abdulkareem Al-Kandari criticized the refusal of the Public Authority for Agriculture Affairs and Fish Resourrces (PAAAFR) to hand over land located in Qairawan to PAHW under the pretext that it is covered with plants. He said the PAAAFR should be ashamed as it has neglected its responsibility to develop plants throughout the country. He called on the concerned minister to implement the decision of the Municipal Council to hand over the land to PAHW regardless of the objection of PAAAFR. Moreover, National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim sent a cable to Bahraini Speaker of the Council of Representatives Fawzia Bint Abdulahh Zaintal and Chairman of the Shura Council of Bahrain Ali bin Saleh Al Saleh to greet them on the National Day of their country. By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh Arab Times Staff