Govt buildings’ relocation creates traffic nightmare in South Surra
KUWAIT: It seems that moving all ministries from Mirqab to South Surra to resolve the problem of parking only shifted the problem to South Surra, said local daily AlQabas. The report said over 15 government bodies, including the Ministry of Electricity and Water (MEW) with its 23,000 employees and 3,000 working in the main building, had moved to South Surra. “Those employees and hundreds of people doing transactions there daily makes it impossible to find enough parking spaces,” it said.
The area also includes the Ministry of Public Works (MPW) with over 4,000 employees working at its headquarters and the Ministry of Education (MoE) with over 5,000 employees at its headquarters, with thousands of daily visitors including teachers, employees and parents. In addition, the area houses the Jaber Hospital with over 10,000 staff members and the endless number of daily visitors that amounts to 8,000-12,000 vehicles daily as per a study made by the Public Authority for Roads and Transportation (PART).
The area also houses the Public Authority for Housing Welfare (PAHW) with its 1,500 staff members and over 500 daily visitors, the new headquarters of the expropriation department, Kuwait Authority for Partnership Projects, Zakat House, the Public Institution for Social Security, three Interior Ministry departments, the Kuwait Credit Bank’s new headquarters, International Islamic Charity Organization (IICO) and many other charities.
None of the above buildings has enough parking for its employees and visitors, which leads to unbearable traffic congestions in the area, especially during morning and afternoon rush hours.
Academic qualifications
In other news, Al-Jarida daily reported yesterday that the replacement policy at state departments has opened the door for appointment of retirees in several unessential jobs, which raised the number of public sector employees without academic qualifications significantly during the past six months. Civil Service Commission (CSC) statistics showed the number of those working in the government who do not have academic qualifications reached 28,274 by Oct 1 (7.8 percent), 20,132 of whom are citizens. This means that their number rose by 3 percent in six months to 12,734 - 11,860 of whom are citizens of both genders.
CSC sources said the increase in the number of registered citizens comes as part of the replacement policy for
jobs that do not require high academic qualification such as guards, office boys, cleanliness supervisors and others, besides some jobs that only require reading and writing knowledge. The sources said some government departments have dropped contracts that provide expatriate labor to allow retired citizens who wish to work in simple jobs, adding that the CSC works in coordination with those departments to give priority to retirees and those holding intermediate certificates or lower to occupy available jobs in a move to end long waiting periods.
Statistics showed that the number of those who have PhDs dropped by 0.1 percent in six months to 204, as the percentage of those who have this qualification is 1.5 percent. Those who have Master’s degrees make up 3.2 percent of the workforce, while the largest percentage is of those with university degrees, at 44.4 percent. Diploma holders make up 14 percent, while secondary certificate holders form 18 percent of the total number of workers in government departments.