When will the civil aviation take to skies?
Almost everyone knows that many departments and agencies in the country complain of complete administrative backwardness and very slow decisionmaking, including the Directorate General of Civil Aviation, whose work is considered too small compared to the work and tasks of its counterparts in Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi and Qatar, let alone Dubai, of course.
Nevertheless, this administration complains of an unjustified backwardness in nature or its continuity for years, often due to the level and qualifications of those who managed this entity, or their unwillingness to take any decision because they believe that this would help them avoid blame of any party.
I contacted them several times to complain about the situation or case or delay, and they were always evading responsibility, and were only creative in placing the blame on this or that side.
Most of the world’s airports welcome additional flights because of what they add to the state’s income. Only the Civil Aviation Administration, which supervises a very limited number of passenger terminals and a limited number of other flights, does not want additional flights, and delays, and often deliberately, in issuing approvals for airline requests, which sometimes take weeks, instead of hours, often because of the long documentary cycle, and the negligence, intentional or otherwise, that pops up.
When inquiring about the request, the excuses are that the manager is absent or the president is busy in meetings, so time passes and the season is lost, and with it the opportunity to really operate the flights.
This backward administration, which we do not know how it is managed, nor how it will manage the new Kuwait International Airport in the future while suffering from all this incompetence.
The government has previously handed over the management of the T4 building to a Korean company, and it was a successful experience, so why does our wise government not consider repeating the experiment, and handing over the management of the new passenger building to a qualified foreign or local administration?
I often have to go back to my banking experience in the sixties and seventies of the last century, not only for its richness and what I learned from it, but also for its deep impact on my life until today, after 42 years.
The real banking management in the bank was in the hands of the British and Indians. As for me and the rest of the Arab employees, the bank’s routine work was our share, and the reason was lack of experience on the one hand, and our lack of proficiency in the English language, the language of completing bank transactions in remittances and foreign investment, and other important departments.
One day, I heard the Scottish manager blame a Kuwaiti employee for his indifference to the performance of his work, after he joined the bank to manage the treasury, and told him that he must learn what he (the manager) does to take his place when his contract ends, and that his failure to learn means he will not take the place for several years.
What I would like to point out is that it is not only important to seek foreign expertise in specific sectors, but rather it must be accompanied, within the texts of cooperation agreements, by the need for it to train local cadres to replace them when their contracts expire.
We are really tired of the spread of administrative ignorance among the majority of our youth, due to the indifference to their proper training.