KUWAIT CITY, Sept 21: Osama Al-Shaheen has called for governance, rationalization, good management and direction of foreign grants, loans and deposits, announcing that he will submit a query to the Minister of Finance, Fahd Al-Jarallah, about the reasons for not recovering money granted in loans and grants to other countries, reports Al-Rai daily.

Al-Shaheen said, in a statement at the media center in the National Assembly yesterday, that he received an answer from the Minister of Finance to a previous question, which revealed that the value of Kuwaiti money in Arab countries is more than 2.257 billion dinars in 9 Arab countries, including five which have faltered in their payments.

He added, “According to the minister’s answer, the total current Kuwaiti government money in Iraq alone, despite the precedent of the Iraqi invasion, the continued infringements and threats, and the violation of the recent agreement, is $815 million, due for payment in December 2023.”

He stated that the total current Kuwaiti government money in the sisterly Republic of Egypt is about $4 billion, half of which is due to be paid this September.

He said he is surprised by the Minister of Finance’s request not to disclose this data, stressing that “the general principle is transparency and publicity to achieve oversight by public opinion and the nation’s elected representatives over matters. The government’s procedures and decisions and everything related to the state’s public treasury.”

He indicated that he would ask a parliamentary question in light of this answer, from which it appears that the state has not succeeded in recovering any of the proceeds from those billion government deposits in Arab countries.

He praised the Parliamentary Finance Committee's promptness in discussing the proposals for laws that he submitted with other representatives regarding the Kuwait Development Fund and social insurance related to the replacement system and others, indicating that he received an invitation from the committee to attend its meeting next Tuesday.

He stressed that “the government does not have the right to use an accounting financial deficit as an excuse for the citizen, while it possesses billions in deposits in addition to sovereign funds.”