[Excerpt: The MP asked the new minister and his cabinet colleagues to investigate 'clandestine nocturnal meetings that flow with booze' held by officials of an American company with officials of several Kuwaiti institutions aimed at 'partitioning Kuwait.']
http://www.arabtimesonline.com/arabtimes/kuwait2.asp 7th - 8th Apr 2005 : Web Edition No: 12154 Editor-in-Chief: Ahmed Jarallah First blood to Barrak with booze tip after Finance oath KUWAIT CITY: Parliament convened Tuesday almost 3 hours late after the marathon grilling session Monday that saw Minister of Health Dr Mohammed Al-Jarallah bruised, battered and forced to throw in the towel. Tuesday's session saw new Minister of Finance Bader Mishari Al-Humaidhi taking the oath of office and receiving a baptism of fire and a taste of what lies ahead for him by MP Musallam Al-Barrak. The MP asked the new minister and his cabinet colleagues to investigate 'clandestine nocturnal meetings that flow with booze' held by officials of an American company with officials of several Kuwaiti institutions aimed at 'partitioning Kuwait.' He said the meetings, where corrupt transactions are brokered at the expense of the country, must not be allowed to continue. He said his earlier questions to several ministers about these meetings have not been answered and he is prepared to provide the minister with more details. Al-Barrak also criticized 'dubious newspapers' that attempt to soil MPs' reputations. Reacting to an article published by Arabic weekly Al-Shahed under the headline 'To Emperor Haile Selasie Sorry... MP Musallam Al-Barak' and signed 'Sabah Al-Mohammed', Al-Barrak said the editor-in-chief is a known visa trafficking baron whose cronies sell resident visas at KD 500 each. He said he has informed the Ministry of Labor about the nefarious activities and the editor-in-chief is angry and trying to use the press to tarnish his reputation. Al-Barrak's outburst was followed by that of MP Salah Khorshid who took Al-Seyassah columnist Ibrahim Duaij to task for labeling him 'Al-Mailis MP' in his column. Khorshid said corrupting the name of Parliament in order to lambast him is an affront to Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah and MPs who were elected by Kuwaitis to represent them. The two MPs comments were criticized by MPs Ali Al-Khalaf and Ali Al-Rashid who asked them not to mention and criticize people in parliament under the guise of parliamentary immunity. They said any MP libeled by a newspaper should resort to the courts for redress and not use the parliamentary platform to respond because the other party does not have a similar privilege. Tuesday's session saw MPs sharply criticizing an amendment to the housing law recommended by Minister of Public Works and Housing Bader Nasser Al-Humaidi asking that the Public Authority for Housing Care (PAHC) should not be subjected to supervisions by the Audit Bureau. He said PAHC should be given a free rein in order for it to be able to accomplish its target of providing houses to Kuwaitis within a short time. MP Yousef Al-Zalzalah said a similar argument was used to give contractors a free rein to execute the Kuwait University College of Administrative Sciences premises project in Shuwaikh and they ended up doing a shoddy job. "We were promised state-of-the-art facilities and what we got was worse than the former secondary school building in Adailiya that was used by the college. The buildings are less than 5 years old and chairs in the lecture rooms have already broken down. The air condition is faulty and passages were fitted with fittings bought from Souk Al-Kharaj." He said despite recommendations by the Audit Bureau that the contractors be taken to task for their poor performance nothing has been done against them because the companies belong to big shots. MP Ahmed Al-Mulaifi said the lack of the Audit Bureau's monitoring and supervision of PAHC's activities will spell disaster because of laxity within Kuwaiti institutions. He said many government institutions and Kuwait Municipality have become bastions of corruption despite the monitoring efforts by the Audit Bureau. He referred to his time on the Central Tenders Board when it short-listed companies for projects only for ministries to say they do not want the companies because of earlier shoddy jobs. "When we make this known to the companies they come to us with certificates of merit from the same ministries showing their appreciation for work done. How do they give them certificates of merit for shoddy works and also maintain them on the list of bidders for other contracts when they know their performances," he asked. Al-Mulaifi said one contractor had a case against him in court but ended up being awarded a project worth millions of dinars. He said monitoring of PAHC's activities by the Audit Bureau will be a blessing to the institution and the ministry because the Audit Bureau is impartial. The MPs also said the Audit Bureau's monitoring of PAHC will ensure public funds are not embezzled while the lack of a watchdog will be an 'invitation to steal public funds.' Chairman of the Housing Committee MP Ahmed Al-Saadoun supported the MPs call and said the committee had expressed misgivings about the amendment. He added that PAHC needed to be monitored to prevent a recurrence of the South Surra scenario which has resulted in the new residential area lacking basic amenities. He said the committee has recommended that PAHC should put up at least 3,000 housing units annually to solve the housing problem in 5 years because said since the absence of former housing minister Jassim Al-Oun who solved 25 per cent of the problem, little has been done by the government to address the issue. - By H. Hashim Ahmed; Arab Times Staff enditem ------------------------ Yahoo! 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