Social security institution considers Audit remarks

The Public Institution for Social Security (PIFSS) is seriously taking into consideration remarks made by the Audit Bureau and other State supervisory institutions, the Minister of Finance said. Anas AlSaleh, also the Deputy Premier, made the assertion on Sunday as he emerged from a meeting of the parliamentary budgets and final accounts committee on turned-down budgets including that of the PIFSS.

“We are serious with respect to cooperating with the commission and the National Assembly to heed the remarks and tackle the flaws,” he said, however, he indicated that some controversial matters could not be tackled because they were of a purely investment nature. Minister Saleh added that he presented the committee with the PIFSS replies to the remarks, including those related to decline of the institution’s profits from KD 1.5 billion in the fiscal year 2014-2015 to KD 21 million in the fiscal year 2015-2016, “which we have alluded to international indexes.”

The institution, in the end of the fiscal year that ended on March 31, posted earnings higher than those made in the fiscal year 2014-2015, “and this a good matter and we cannot assess performance of an investment institution independently from the markets.”

On criticisms that the institution maintained the expenditures despite decline of the earnings, he explained that this was due to the fact that the investment spending is related to the value of the portfolios and not the proceeds thus the value of the portfolio has not changed.”

As to lack of high academic qualifications of the expatriates who work at the institution, he said that their job is restricted to settlements and data entry. A special treasury has been set up to ensure solidity of the banks, he said. “There are no worries about the local banks because they are ensured by the government,” he stressed.

Meanwhile, the National Assembly’s budgets committee has endorsed the final accounts and the budgets of the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR) and the Public Institution for Social Security (PIFSS). It also approved the state budget, but refused its final account. The KISR and PIFSS final accounts and budgets, previously rejected, were finally approved after the two relevant ministers vowed to settle the notices on them, head of the committee MP Adnan Abdulsamad told reporters after the meeting Sunday. The Minister of Education and Higher Education Dr Mohammed AlFares has vowed to remedy the irregularities and the notices on KISR. Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance has also explained the notices that were settled by the State Audit Bureau and the financial controllers on the PIFSS budget, as well as the measures to be taken to handle the rest of remarks, Abdulsamad added.

The committee discussed, voted on and approved the state budget, as the last in this parliamentary session. Yet, the state’s final account was rejected. This is a message to the government to remedy the notices and the irregularities found in the budgets or final accounts of the ministries and other official bodies, he noted.

Separately, the National Assembly gave the thumbs up yesterday to the Public Authority for Communications and Information Technology’s budget for the fiscal year 2017/2018 and its final account for the year 2015/2016. During the voting process, 44 out of 48 MPs voted in favor of approving the budget and four voted against it, while 33 MPs voted to okay the Communication Authority’s final account.

Moreover, the Communication Authority’s expenditures for the fiscal year 2017-2018 amounted to KD 23 million, while revenues totaled out to be KD 68 million. Meanwhile, during the Cabinet’s routine meeting on Sunday, Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Acting Minister of Information Sheikh Mohammad AlMubarak Al-Sabah spoke of “some notes regarding the Communication Authority’s budget.” The Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs pointed out that it was “completely untrue” that the Communication Authority had been assigned the Fiber Optics project. He also underscored that a parliamentary committee tasked with studying government budgets will work to remedy any shortcomings detected. — KUNA