Cabinet congratulates China on Asian Games success

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 9: Parliament’s Committee for Public Facilities held a meeting on Monday in the presence of the Minister of Public Works Dr. Amani Buqammaz, and senior officials at the ministry. According to the Chairman of the committee MP Ahmad Lari, the committee was given a presentation about the road maintenance processes completed in the last ten years as well as a presentation on the ongoing procedures to settle the tenders and sign the contracts to start road maintenance operations.

The committee was informed about the correspondence exchanged between the Ministry of Public Works and the State Audit Bureau to approve part of the contracts and check the other parts as a prelude to settling them. Lari affirmed that the parliamentary efforts will continue to monitor the maintenance processes. He called upon the relevant institutions including the State Audit Bureau to expedite the completion of their tasks in order to ensure the maintenance of the roads are carried out as quickly as possible, as some of the roads are not safe at present.

In the same context, MP Khalid Al-Tamar affirmed his support for the grilling motion filed by his colleague MP Mubarak Al-Tasha against the Minister of Public Works Dr. Amani Buqammaz. Al-Tamar said the items included in the grilling motion were enough to fail a full government, adding that Dr. Buqammaz was granted one year to maintain the roads but she did nothing other than give empty promises. Meanwhile, MP Hamad Al-Medlej submitted parliamentary questions to both the Minister of Health Ahmad Al-Awadhi, and the Minister of Commerce and Industry and State Minister of Youth Affairs Mohammad Al-Aiban to ask for information about the incident concerning the transformation of a flat into a restaurant that serves pork and liquor.

Investigation
He asked Minister Al-Awadhi if the Public Authority for Food and Nutrition (PAFN) conducted an investigation into this matter, and if any approvals were obtained by the accused to import the prohibited items including pork and liquor. Al-Medlej asked Minister Al-Aiban if the General Administration for Customs conducted an investigation on the issue to figure out how the banned items entered Kuwait. He also asked if the importer of the pork and liquor had been arrested. In another development, MP Bader Al-Mulla asked the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Oil Saad Al-Barrak about the procedures taken by the ministry regarding the suspicions of sand theft from the sites belonging to the Ministry of Oil. He asked if the ministry formed a fact-finding committee to investigate the issue and protect public funds.

If so, he wanted to know the conclusion of the committee’s findings. Furthermore, MP Saad Al-Asfour asked the Minister of Justice and the State Minister for Housing Affairs Faleh Al-Raqabah to provide him with details about the tender floated by the Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT) for the supply of medium-pressure aluminum cables to the Ministry of Electricity, Water and Renewable Energy as well as copies of all the bids and offers submitted by all the applicants.

Al-Asfour said he also wanted to know the procedures taken by the State Audit Bureau regarding the suspicions about the illegal agreement by the applicants to provide offers to settle the tender for a specific applicant. He wanted to know if the issue had been verified and if yes, what penalties were imposed on the applicant companies.

In addition, MP Osama Al-Zaid called upon the parliament’s Committee for Legal and Legislation Affairs to hasten the approval of the proposal he submitted in August 2023, which aimed at referring to the Public Prosecution of whoever deals with, supports, or shows sympathy towards Israel, based on law No. 21/1964 related to boycotting Israel.

By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff and Agencies