Wrong foot start
It was proven that the work of the Public AntiCorruption Authority, ever since its first establishment in 2012 and second in 2016 following its initial fall, has not been so good. It is actually starting on the wrong foot because so many elements are fighting the idea of ‘cleansing’ Kuwait’s administrative bodies. It seems that this authority came to existence at the wrong time when Kuwait fell back 20 grades in an international corruption index compared to its rank in 2003.
A time when briberies caused government contracts’ values to jump by at least 25 percent more than their true values. In addition, it is both the cabinet and parliament’s incapability or unwillingness to stop public funds’ leakages, protect those funds, or at least provide a proper healthy atmosphere to help the authority function properly and effectively.
It is also remarkable how the authority members themselves are not in agreement, such as the case detected in a report made by an investigation committee at the beginning of the year where liabilities of its chairman, deputy and members got entangled. In addition, there was the recent political tension between the justice minister and the authority that got all the way to dropping its accusations to a lawmaker and a senior official due to ‘procedural error’; a legal term that is being sarcastically used nowadays.
In such cases, public feelings towards the authority leaders contribute to interfering in their administrative body’s liabilities to the extent of rewarding them handsomely for zero accomplishments. Such a situation leads to losing hope in things getting any better simply because Kuwait is a small lightly populated and extravagantly rich country that should not witness such massive corruption. It is logic.
Transparency and accountable bodies are usually established for two reasons; follow up a state’s international obligations according to the international treaties it had signed, and create leading senior positions for some most favored people .... at least that is what people assume. We are not actually in the time of fighting corruption because, on one hand, the government is not serious enough about it and, on the other, the parliament is so divided that it is incapable of agreeing on common concerns and act accordingly.
In addition, constant threats of dissolving the parliament makes MPs nominees all year long. It was so premature that the justice minster announced his wish to change the authority’s name to become the ‘Success Authority.’ There is no need for such a proposal because it is the result of the authority’s missing work that ought to suggest names; not the other way round. I personally believe the best names in such cases should come from the people themselves.