MP focus on ‘governance’

KUWAIT CITY, July 19: The parliamentary Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee has approved the proposal of MPs Hamad Al-Matar, Osama AlShaheen, Abdulaziz Al- Saqaabi and Mubarak Al-Arow on developing governance.

Article One of the bill defines governance as a set of rules and decisions on improving qualitative and transparent performance of public institutions, activating their monitoring role, and defining relations and responsibilities of these institutions.

Article Two mandates the Council of Ministers to issue a manual of rules and decisions on governance as per the international criteria within six months of enforcing the bill according to the draft submitted by the State Audit Bureau (SAB) and Secretariat General of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development.

The Secretariat General will follow up the enforcement of the govenance manual and supervise the establishment of certain departments in public institutions tasked to enforce the govenance manual.

The Secretariat General shall submit reports every six months on the progress of enforcing the govenance manual to the National Assembly and the Cabinet.

The Council of Ministers will form a joint committee headed by SAB with representatives of the Financial Controllers Bureau (FCB), Secretariat General and Civil Service Commission (CSC) as members.

The committee will coordinate with different public institutions to prevent overlapping of functions during the enforcement of the govenance manual. It will submit annual reports to the Assembly and Council of Ministers, while the Secretariat General will carry out campaigns to raise awareness among citizens about the way to deal with public institutions according to the govenance manual.