112 Ten file ‘no-confidence’ in Finance By Saeed Mahmoud Saleh

Vote set for August 12

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 5: A total of 10 MPs have submitted a no-confidence motion against Finance Minister Barrak Al-Shitan and the National Assembly decided to vote on the motion in the session slated for Aug 12, 2020.

During its session on Tuesday, the Assembly deliberated on the interpellation request that MP Riyadh Al-Adasani submitted against the minister. When Al-Adasani presented his motion, he pointed out that Al-Shitan is the only finance minister among his counterparts in the GCC countries who failed to present a clear financial plan to address the coronavirus crisis. He said that due to the poor performance of Al-Shitan, the classification of Kuwait declined twice according to E&P Global. He asserted it can be presumed that the classification went down for the first time because of the reduction of oil prices, but what could

be bodies He the estimated added reason but he Al-Shitan behind did at KD not the fulfill 7 promised billion second his promise. from reduction? to recover the relevant reserved official profits

went He down disclosed to KD that 700 cash million, in the while National the cash Reserve is valuable Fund for the Future Generations Fund but Al-Shitan ignored this fact and resorted to public loan.

On misleading the citizens – one of the grilling points, AlAdasani said the minister claimed that the economic document does not belong to him, yet he was the one who signed it.

The lawmaker revealed Al-Shitan asked for exceptional salary of KD 3,000 in addition to his basic salary while the annual grant that His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah AlAhmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah grants to ministers amounted to KD 800,000. He wondered why Al-Shitan demanded for additional salary for presenting an economic development plan which negatively affects the citizens as it is targeting their pockets. He said the document recommends privatizing public services, which will have a negative impact on the fees for such services. He asserted the document does not touch the traders, yet it targets citizens with limited income.

He went on to say that the public loan adopted by AlShitan amounted to KD 20 billion. He quoted Al-Shitan as saying this amount is divided as follows: KD 8 billion to cover salaries and KD 12 billion to fund development projects. He argued these alleged projects are not specified in a clear plan.

He added Al-Shitan was asked to suspend the 10 percent deduction from the State’s revenues for the Future Generations Fund but the latter did not respond.

He also criticized the fact that recommendations in relation to the document were ignored; such as reducing the number of employees under the wages item by 50 percent, reducing privileges granted to the staff of Kuwait University, minimizing specializations allocated for overseas education, reducing the budget for overseas treatment by 50 percent and asking the Ministry of Health to specify the diseases which require overseas treatment.

He said Al-Shitan is too weak to present his vision in a financial plan, indicating the document adopted by the minister includes reducing the subsidy for sports clubs and increasing the prices of diesel and fuel. He added despite the fact that increasing fuel prices necessitate the ratification and implementation of the relevant law, the government can still increase the price to maximum of 25 fils per liter according to the executive decision and without the issuance of a law in this regard.

Reduce

He disclosed Al-Shitan wants to reduce the share of the State in the social security contribution by five percent which will then be paid by the citizens. He said the minister wants to increase the State’s revenues from the citizens’ pockets by suspending promotions and regular salary increment.

He added Al-Shitan committed a grave mistake when he asked for 20 percent reduction of the budget of all public institutions. He explained some institutions like Kuwait Fire Service Directorate can bear such a reduction, while others like the Ministry of Public Works cannot do so due to its ongoing projects.

He accused Al-Shitan of manipulating facts when he announced that he is against the acquisition of Kuwait Finance House (KFH) by Ahli United Bank (AUB), yet he supported the idea during his tenure as one of the officials at KFH.

He said Al-Shitan referred the file concerning violations in Jazeera Airways to the Public Prosecution but the file was withheld because it was a mere formality as it lacked information and it even excluded the name of the aviation company.

He revealed the Public Institution for Social Security (PIFSS) – a subsidiary of the Finance Ministry – invested a large amount in Abtaaj Capital Company but the company later stopped paying the $100 million loan and the chairman was arrested. He stated that Al-Shitan did not conduct investigations on this issue and no one among the PIFSS employee was punished.

Defense of Al-Shitan

On the other hand, Al-Shitan clarified the economic document has nothing to do with the one that the government submitted in 2016. He pointed out the document represents the vision of the government and it is clear, stressing it does not affect the salaries or compensations allocated for citizens. He said the Assembly will discuss the document, which is still subject to amendment. He affirmed all the public institutions were given copies of the document for study in order to obtain their opinions in this regard.

He said the government referred the State budget for 2020/2021 to the Assembly, indicating the parliamentary Budget and Final Accounts Committee is currently studying the budget. He asserted the budget has no items that negatively affect citizens or hurt them.

He pointed out Kuwait depends on oil as a single source of income and everybody knows the price of oil went down recently. He said the ministry works on all items of the State budget and studies each item in order to take the proper decision.

He said the ministry did not issue any circular or directive on budget reduction to any of the public institutions, affirming the estimated budget for fiscal 2021/2022 will be referred to them in September 2020.

He also gave an example to prove the commitment of the ministry to regulate prices, indicating other GCC countries recently imposed anti-dumping fees but Kuwait did not do the same in order to prevent price hikes. He added some Gulf countries imposed tax as part of their rationalization policy but Kuwait did not follow suit.

He explained the recommendations included in the document require at least six months to implement, asserting the allegation that the ministry decided to postpone talks on the issue until summer in order to take decisions away from the Assembly is baseless. He said the implementation of the contents of the document requires legislative and legal procedures.

He affirmed the ministry already adopted solutions suggested in the grilling motion, indicating the development of non-oil revenues is the business of 66 public institutions and each of them contributes according to their revenues.

He made clear that the ministry has been rationalizing expenditures under different items in the State budget. In fiscal 2017/2018, the estimated budget of public institutions amounted to KD 29 billion while the approved budget was KD 19.9 billion. In fiscal 2019/2020, the estimated budget was KD 30.5 billion and the actual was KD 22 billion, he added.