KUWAIT CITY, Dec 7: According to official data, Kuwait Integrated Petroleum Industries Company (KIPIC) rented 447 cars from the Kuwait Oil Company (KOC) and Kuwait National Petroleum Corporation (KNPC) to assign them to the company’s employees during the period from August 2017 to May 2021, and before the start of contract work on June 1, 2021. This led to the disbursement of sums of a total value of KD 168,525 including five percent of the profitability of associate companies on leasing a number of cars without benefiting from them, reports Al-Rai daily. The data revealed that most of the cars that were rented were not used until they were delivered to one of the company’s employees and then re-received after the completion of their use to remain unused again until they were delivered to another worker and without being returned to the two associate companies or until the end of the contract, which cost the company sums of money without utilizing it.

Data
The data also indicated that KIPIC spent KD 101,403 for leasing 345 cars it received from KOC , and they were parked in the company’s facilities until delivered to the first user. One of them was not used for a period of 826 days, and the company spent KD 55,778 for renting 75 cars that were received from the first user and parked in the company’s facilities until they were assigned to the second user, as one of them was parked without use for 455 days.

KIPIC spent KD 3,318 related to renting five cars that were received from the second user and parked in the company’s facilities until they were assigned to the third and fourth user. One of them was not utilized for a period of 160 days. The company affirmed that it provided personal cars to its employees from the beginning of the company’s establishment until June 2021 by using the car contracts of some associate companies through the protocols of joint cooperation agreements concluded with them.

Due to the continued development and expansion of the company’s organizational structure in an accelerated manner, it was necessary to secure additional vehicles to meet the volume of appointments and promotions to fill the vacancies that were being created in the various groups of the company, to fulfill the company’s increasing responsibilities and obligations. KIPIC stated that, “Therefore, the vehicles were reserved for the benefit of those users who were expected to be entitled to the personal car benefit in the company in order to fulfill the car benefit as soon as they are entitled to it, taking into account the need to provide a means of transportation for workers, especially since the largest site of the company is located in a geographically distant border area.

Benefit
The Human Resources Group stated that there are many employees expected to be appointed and are entitled to the personal car benefit, which necessitated the company having to keep these vehicles until then, in order to avoid being unable to provide them on time.” The company added that the announcement of the internal transfer of experienced workers from oil companies to KIPIC in 2019 faced many challenges in directing the transfer of accepted workers, due to its coincidence with the COVID- 19 pandemic.

This negatively affected the company’s plans to fill its vacancies that remained suspended pending the end of the events amidst the continued issuance of Cabinet’s decisions regulating work and the number of manpower at work sites, which forced the Public Services Group to keep these vehicles to ensure their readiness to provide personal cars to the various workers expected to be appointed or promoted at the moment they are entitled to do so.