Moderate sessions, quorum full, MP tells Speaker

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 21: National Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun adjourned the session on Tuesday due to the absence of the government. According to Al-Saadoun, State Minister for National Assembly Affairs, Housing and Urban Development Ammar Al-Ajmi informed him that the government will not attend the session. In a related development, MP Hamdan Al-Azmi objected to the adjournment of the session. He addressed Al- Saadoun, stating it is no longer acceptable for the lawmakers to attend the sessions only to hear him hitting the hammer to signal adjournment; indicating he and his colleagues will hold another sit-in if this continues.

MP Obaid Al-Wasmi stressed the nation’s will should not be undermined due to random administrative steps and unconstitutional practices. He pointed out that the speaker must perform his duty – to moderate the sessions – as long as quorum is achieved despite the absence of the government since he invited the lawmakers and ministers to the sessions. “If the speaker cannot carry out his task, the deputy speaker can do so,” he asserted.

On the other hand, MP Osama Al-Shaheen submitted a proposal to update the official website of Kuwait University using Kuwaiti servers and national workforce. He explained his proposal is aimed at providing a better service to the students and to tighten information security.

MPs Osama Al-Shaheen, Mubarak Al-Hajraf, Hamad Al- Matar, Abdullah Fehad and Mehalhal Al-Mudaf have submitted a proposal to grant female employees four months delivery leave and maternity leave for a maximum of two years with full salary. In addition, MP Fares Al-Otaibi asked Minister of Finance Abdulwahab Al-Rashead if the senior officials at Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) are planning to amend the administrative structure, cost of the last amendment, if the relevant international regulations were violated and cost of such violations.

Queries MP Mehalhal Al-Mudaf forwarded queries to Minister of Defense Sheikh Talal Khalid Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah about the information that Rheinmetall Italia – an Italian company specialized in air defense and radar technology – allegedly violated the provisions of contracts for the maintenance and upgrading of the Skyguard system and that the company should be fined KD30 million. He demanded for details of the contracts valued at KD120 million, if the fine was deducted from the contract value in case the information is true, if Kuwait Air Force owns the defense system ‘soft kill and hard kill’ against the CAT1 and CAT2 drones, rationale behind the procurement of NASAMS network for short to medium range through direct contract ing instead of a public tender, and list of qualified companies to supply air defense equipment since 2015 till date.

MP Khalil Abdul asked Minister of Oil Bader Al-Mullah to provide him with the names, qualifications and experience of the members of the recruitment committee tasked to interview applicants for supervisory positions at the Environment Public Authority for fiscal 2022/2023. He requested for copies of advertisements for the recruitment of supervisors since Aug 1, 2022 till date and all decisions issued in this regard from Jan 2, 2023 till date. He also asked Minister of Health Ahmad Abdulwahab Al-Adwani about the total cost of vaccines purchased during the Covid-19 crisis, number of doses purchased and number of vaccinated individuals. He wants to know if the ministry purchased Corona vaccines in the last six months. If yes, he demanded for details including the cost. He requested for clarification on the report of the State Audit Bureau about the alleged squandering of public funds during the Corona crisis and steps taken in this regard.

Meanwhile, MP Soud Al-Asfour has warned Minister of Justice, Endowments and Islamic Affairs and Minister of State for Integrity Promotion Abdulaziz Majed Al-Majed or the minister who will occupy this position in the next government that he will be subjected to grilling if he does not cancel the decision to increase the working hours in Dar Al-Quran centers. He argued the decision did not take into consideration the nature of the job and caused a lot of problems for these employees. Moreover, Assembly Speaker Ahmad Al-Saadoun sent a cable to Speaker of Saudi Shura Council Dr Abdullah bin Muhammad bin Ibrahim Al- Sheikh to greet him on the Founding Day of Saudi Arabia. By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh Arab Times Staff