Minister to receive final report on ‘rain companies’ within two weeks

Committee holds first meeting

KUWAIT CITY, Feb 15: The committee, which was formed to ensure the level of commitment of “rain companies” – the companies that built the roads and infrastructure which were negatively affected by the heavy rains last year – to the repairs required of them, held their first meeting last Sunday. It is expected to submit its final report within two weeks of starting its work, as stipulated in the decision to form it, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting informed sources from Ministry of Public Works.

They explained that the committee will not be authorized to grant clearance to the companies, as it is an inherent jurisdiction of the Central Authority for Public Tenders, as the authority that previously imposed sanctions. However, it will submit its report on the position of each company to the Minister of Public Works and State Minister for Housing Affairs Dr Rana Al-Faris to address the concerned authority.

The work of the committee currently focuses on two things – the company’s commitment to repairs, and receiving the ten-year guarantee, which will start with respect to those repairs from the date of implementation.

Revealed

Meanwhile, the sources revealed that Dr Al-Faris, during her recent tour of the buildings of the Government Center for Quality Control in Sabhan area with employees who are in charge of following-up the contract of General Laboratory of the Public Authority for Roads and Transportation (PART), was surprised to see cigarettes being used inside the place, despite the presence of a notice of the smoking ban. This sparked dissatisfaction of the minister and pushed her to contact the acting director of PART Soha Ashkanani immediately to take action over the incident related to violating the environmental law.

Dr Al-Faris stressed that she would not allow any violation of laws within the corridors of its affiliated bodies.

At the same time, she praised the status of construction of the laboratories, promising workers to meet all their demands on the level of signing maintenance contracts, as well as providing escorts and cleaners.

In addition, sources indicated that the ministry may witness reshuffling at the level of assistant undersecretaries, which includes about 70 percent of the sectors, especially the technical sectors, with the aim of advancing the work.

They hinted that the reshuffling may extend to the sectors of planning, health and construction engineering and the government center, with the assignment of the Undersecretary of the Supervision Sector Walid Al-Ghanem as the undersecretary of the advisory body, in addition to his current responsibilities.

The sources revealed about an ongoing study that requires the return of the road departments, which were transferred to the authority to track the works again until the completion of the amendments, to the law of the authority and the issuance of a decree appointing a board of directors and the general manager in person, especially since the amendments are expected to take a few months.