National Assembly said in bid to ‘amend’ KIA establishment law
‘Application of transparency, declaration criteria could be possible’
KUWAIT CITY, Feb 15: There have been some moves and efforts within the National Assembly to coordinate with government officials to amend Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) establishment law, reports Al-Qabas daily.
The daily quoting a source disclosed the lawmakers plan to tailor the amendment toward a new trend of governance such that application of transparency and declaration criteria could be possible, in addition to pulling all state investments under a single umbrella, while instituting the new social welfare fund.
He said the proposed amendment entails that Kuwait Investment Authority, on behalf of the government and in its name, will reinvest the country’s fiscal reserve in addition to the fund of future generations, social welfare fund, and funds for government agencies and investment capitals. They stipulated the authority should ensure proper management of the reserves and funds to produce massive revenues.
The proposal intends to put the administration of the authority under the watch of the relevant minister instead of its current location under the supervision of minister of finance. The authority will be allowed to open investment accounts for all government agencies for safe keeping of funds and capitals meant for investment.
Connecting
The authority will be in charge of accounts and represent those agencies in connecting with third parties. Consideration will be given to individual needs and investment policies separately. Therefore, those agencies do not have power to act on the investment capitals and funds except through the authority. The law will see to establishment of a reserve social welfare fund with specific mechanism for its funding.
Also, an account will be open to create a reserve known as “Social Welfare Fund” where money will be saved with annual deduction, which should be no less than 20 percent of the net revenues of the state.
Iqbal Al-Tayyar, Director of Technical Monitoring and Statistics at the Ministry of Electricity and Water stated the ministry, as of December 2017, had a total of 20,440 employees constituting 19,078 Kuwaitis, 704 Arabs, 630 Asians, 24 Africans, and 4 employees from other nationalities, reports Al-Jarida daily.
Al-Tayyar added the current quota of national personnel is 93.3 percent. She noted the ministry in recent years, has been keen on applying Kuwaitization policy to replace expatriate employees, and data of the Department of Statistics and Information points to a sharp increase in the number of Kuwaiti personnel since the last quarter of 2017, with the appointment of 19,123 citizens in October, 19,144 in November, and 19,078 in December, compared to 1,383 expatriates employed in October and 1,376
in November and 1362 in December 2017.
She noted the number of highly qualified employees and those with higher academic credentials is 4,881, of which 4,588 are Kuwaitis, while 2,363 of the total 2,545 diploma holders in the ministry are also Kuwaitis.
Those with secondary school certificate represent 7,504 of the ministry employees among them 6,908 Kuwaitis, while 5,219 of the total 5,510 holders of intermediate or lower credentials are Kuwaitis.
She stressed that all 314 people
employed in October, November and December 2017 respectively were Kuwaitis, indicating no expatriates were employed during the period.
And, the service of 185 employees was terminated. They included 165 Kuwaitis and 20 expatriates.