KUWAIT CITY, Oct 13: The final accounts of the Ministry of Health show that the public institutions owe the ministry roughly 17 million dinars in the form of health insurance for their expatriate workers for fiscal 2023/2024, reports Al-Seyassah daily. The report says the Ministry of Health has not only failed to follow up on the issue to urge these institutions to pay but also violated the regulations of executing public budget. Also, the final account examination results for the fiscal year 2023/2024 conducted by the Ministry of Health revealed a significant issue -- several ‘expired’ checks and letters of guarantee totaling over 99 million dinars, reports Al-Seyassah Daily. Despite expiring between 2022 and 2023, the ministry failed to renew these checks and guarantees.
The Audit Bureau deemed this a “waste of public money” and a clear violation of the rules and procedures for closing accounts and preparing the final accounts of government institutions. Most of the letters of guarantee were issued between 2017 and 2021. However, the explanatory memorandum provided by the Ministry of Health did not clarify the reasons for the lack of renewal for these guarantees or the steps taken to extend them, assuming their purpose remained valid. The Audit Bureau emphasized the importance of renewing these letters following the established rules if their intended purpose has not yet expired.
Additionally, the Bureau expressed reservations regarding the validity of the balance of checks and letters of guarantee issued by banks on behalf of the Ministry, noting that these were not backed by the issuing banks. It pointed out that the Ministry failed to include bank certificates supporting the balances of these checks and letters of guarantee, violating the Ministry of Finance’s Circular (1) of 2022. This circular outlines the rules and procedures necessary for closing accounts and preparing final accounts for government agencies. The lack of bank approvals hindered necessary reconciliations, especially since some letters of guarantee had expired, thereby confirming their exclusion from the balance of incoming checks and letters of guarantee, which amounted to approximately 812.45 million dinars.
The Bureau findings also revealed that the “Amounts for Services and Works Performed” account continued to grow during the same fiscal year, reaching around 17 million dinars by the end of the first quarter of 2024. This increase was attributed to the low or non-existent collection of amounts owed to the Ministry from certain government agencies for health insurance fees for expatriate workers. The Ministry’s inadequate follow-up with these agencies regarding their outstanding health insurance dues was noted as a violation of budget implementation rules.
