Call of penalties on contracting companies

KUWAIT CITY, April 20: A number of MPs have responded positively to an Egyptian working as security guard in a school after he appeared in a video clip complaining that he did not receive his salary for the past five months. MPs Mehalhal Al-Mudaf and Osama Al-Shaheen called on the Ministry of Education to pay the salaries of security guards in schools and impose penalties on contracting companies which violated the provisions of the relevant contracts.

The Ministry of Education has announced that it already transferred the salaries to the contracting companies until March 2021. The Egyptian security guard was later seen in a picture with MP Salah Zeib Al-Mutairi in the latter’s vehicle while they were leaving the Ministry of Interior. Al-Mutairi personally followed up the ministry’s investigation into the complaint of the security guard after uploading the video clip.

MP Muhannad Al-Sayer said he communicated with Undersecretary of the ministry Lieutenant General Esam Al-Nahham who informed him that the security guard was summoned in order to obtain details about his problem with the company, which signed a pledge to pay the delayed salaries. MP Hamad Al-Matar disclosed the undersecretary confirmed that the investigation was in favor of the security guard and it was done in the presence of the representatives of the Public Authority for Manpower (PAM), indicating the authority will investigate the concerned company.

In another development, MP Muhammad Hadi Al-Hewaila forwarded queries to Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Economic and Investment Affairs Khalifa Hamada about the procedures taken by the ministry and Secretariat General for Planning and Development to address the comments of the State Audit Bureau (SAB) regarding the budgets and final accounts of ministries, subsidiaries and independent institutions for fiscal 2019 /2020.

The lawmaker asked why the violations have yet to be corrected despite the fact that they have been repeated for many years. MP Badr Al-Humaidi asked Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Muhammad about the subsidiaries and institutions under the Cabinet, which were established as per the relevant laws and decrees in the last five years. He wants to know the advantages of establishing such entities, salaries, privileges and annual reward granted to senior officials in these entities. He asked why the government is not committed to the economic document’s stipulation on the need to limit the establishment of new institutions, especially if similar institutions are already existing. He wants to know the policy adopted by the government to solve this problem.

MP Muhannad Al-Sayer forwarded queries to Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice and Minister of State for Nazaha Enhancement Abdullah Al Rumi on the steps taken to strengthen the security of online systems and applications that the ministry is using. He wants to know the decisions and procedures in protecting data and applications from hackers. On the other hand, MPs Hassan Jawhar, Mehalhal Al-Mudaf, Abdullah Al-Mudaf, Muhannad Al-Sayer and Musaed Al-Ardi submitted a proposal on urging citizens to hand over their heritage collectibles and traditional pieces. They also proposed the establishment of a special Institution to receive the collections and show them to the public by allocating a museum or hall for this purpose.

By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh Arab Times Staff