Auction for governmental laws

Auctions are normally governed by law in all commercial fields, but it seems that there is an auction for governmental laws. Improvisation’s place is not in government policies, as many improvisations may turn into decisions in an auction between the leaders of state agencies and create a chaos of policies. There are many examples on the chaos and decisions’ auction like the statement of Secretary General of Manpower and Government Restructuring Program Fawzi Al-Majdali who expressed hope to “fulfill the national vision” of His Highness the Amir in “supporting the economic march of Kuwait by backing up citizens and motivating them to go for their own businesses, as well as small and medium projects to alleviate the burden on the public sector and restructure the national manpower in the interest of the private sector” (Al-Anba, May 24, 2017).

The noble vision of His Highness the Amir was launched years ago, when His Highness toured the world, particularly Asian countries to look into their economic experience, especially the creation of true partnership with the private sector, in preparation for turning Kuwait into an International commercial and financial center. But according to what was published in the media, as well as the Amiri Diwan’s website, the vision did not include the details mentioned by Majdali in regards to “small and medium enterprises and restructuring of manpower,” and there should be accuracy in the percentage of developmental aspects that are an interpretation of the noble vision.

Majdali was not correct in his statement which comes before the merger between the Public Authority for Manpower, which is affiliated to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, and MGRP which is affiliated to another ministry. Majdali’s statement included “state property in Mubarakiya Market, Shuwaikh and co-op societies must be utilized by young Kuwaitis and not expats,” which is a “national proposal for restructuring,” so that commercial licenses will be limited to Kuwaiti youth only.

The commercial licenses of Mubarakiya Market activities and elsewhere are held by Kuwaitis to start with and they manage and operate them, including cooking, but practically it is necessary to use the help of expat labor to carry out service work that does not attract Kuwaitis to them, besides that small and medium enterprises cannot pay rewarding salaries to citizens.

The non-employment of Kuwaiti youth in such projects is not only a “waste of the youth rights” according to the description of Majdali, rather the waste is in the inability of “restructuring” to correct the imbalance in the market place through realistic policies that create partnership with the private sector, especially in major projects which can absorb Kuwaiti youth if there was a government vision for the suitable work environment. The ‘waste’ is in the government’s spending on departments that are encroaching on each other’s work such as MGRP and Public Authority for Manpower, and in the loopholes of commercial licenses that MGRP could not officially deal with but was able to identify the problem in the media only in “sub-licensing for expat in Mubarakiya.” The waste is also in not paying attention to the source of the crises and not sub-licenses, and this is a reality with an official history and is not of yesterday. Enough titillation of the public, and touring the field into auctions and a market for baseless improvisations objectively or logically. — Translated by Kuwait Times