KUWAIT CITY, May 16: National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim has unveiled his plan to submit a bill on amending the National Assembly Election Law. In a press statement, Al- Ghanim disclosed the bill is aimed at enhancing the parliamentary participation of women and paving the way for more women to win in the elections; indicating he will soon announce details of the bill. Moreover, Al-Ghanim sent cables to Chamber of Deputies of Paraguay President Pedro Alliana and Chamber of Senators President Oscar Ruben Salomon to greet them on their National Day.

Proposal
Meanwhile, MP Osama Al- Menawer submitted a proposal to grant incentives to non-ranking officers at Kuwait Army, Ministry of Interior, National Guard and Kuwait Firefighting Force who are not covered by the Council of Ministers’ decision on granting exceptional retirement privileges to their colleagues. He affirmed that the proposed incentive will not affect the privileges which will be granted to them in the future.

On the other hand, MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji asked Minister of Finance and Minister of State for Economic and Investment Affairs Abdulwahab Al-Rashid about the following:
■ Reasons behind the plan of Al- Wafra Real Estate Company to transfer some of its real estate assets to another company;
■ If this transfer is a way to dodge the monitoring of State Audit Bureau (SAB);
■ Update on Al-Wafra Real Estate Company’s deal to buy Arraya Tower II from Al-Salhiya Company for KD58 million;
■ Economic benefit of the aforementioned deal considering the money that will be used to purchase the tower will be taken from the funds of retirees instead of the public treasury;
■ If there is a real estate committee at the Public Institution for Social Security (PIFSS);
■ If the answer to the above is yes, names, qualifications and experience of the committee members; ■ Response of Al-Wafra Real Estate Company to the comments of SAB regarding the wastage of KD2.64 million on the architectural designs of projects which were not implemented;
■ Response of the company to the comments of SAB regarding its violation of the Public Fund Protection Law when it did not inform SAB about its investment projects;
■ Response of the company to the comments of SAB about its real estate investment in the United Kingdom without taking into consideration the risks;
■ Response of the company to the comments of SAB on its violation of the National Labor Subsidy Law when it hired workers without publishing job advertisements;
■ Clarification of the decision to grant incentives to the members of the board of directors at PIFSS more than the specified maximum amount.

Revenues
MP Abdulaziz Al-Saqaabi asked the same minister to submit a report on the fees collected from private universities as per the location and size of the public land they are using; revenues of private universities in the last five fiscal years — 2017/2018, 2018/ 2019, 2019/2020, 2020/2021 and 2021/2022; and criteria for specifying the fees for using public land for the establishment of private universities.

He also inquired about the implementation of Article 150 of the Constitution, which mandates the government to conduct a presentation on the financial status of the State in the National Assembly at least once every parliamentary round or year.

He wants to know the steps that should be taken in this case if the government already resigned, and why the government did not conduct such presentation in the last parliamentary round. He forwarded queries to Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Mohammad Al-Sabah about the decisions taken in the last five years to determine the countries where it is difficult to live for Kuwaiti diplomatic delegations.

He requested for a report on the allowances paid to these diplomats in the last five years. He said he got information that the employees at the Kuwaiti Consulate in Basra, Iraq have been exempted from such allowance. If this is true, he wants to know the justifications. By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh Arab Times Staff