‘Cut extra expenditures, ‘excellent’ bonuses for staff to offset deficit’
“THE government has announced more than once that there is a huge deficit in the state budget that requires us to follow an economic policy to overcome it, and a request has been circulated to all ministries that expenditures must be reduced and an austerity policy should be followed to help the state overcome this budget deficit and avoid its inflation problems,” columnist Adulmohsen Al-Husseini wrote for Al-Anba daily.
“Despite the successive statements of the need to follow the austerity policy and the need to avoid financial decisions, including the disbursement of bonuses and salary increases, and then exaggerating the provision of aid, all of this may increase the suffering of the state in the budget deficit. The government was supposed to start by itself and stop everything that is not in line with the austerity policy.
“I think that it is not necessary to pay a huge bonus that negatively affects the state budget and causes a deficit, and among the unnecessary bonuses that were paid to employees who have nothing to do with health procedures of the outbreak of ‘Corona’, those who deserve the rewards are only the doctors, and nurses of the Ministry of Health and the policemen who helped in carrying out health measures.
“As for giving rewards to employees who have nothing to do with health procedures, this is a mess in granting rewards to those who did not perform any additional or special work whether from among the civil airport employees or the ministries of information, endowments and education.
“I think that there is chaos in the disbursement of rewards. The Prime Minister must intervene directly to stop this great waste of public money, which increases the budget deficit. It is necessary to stop these financial compliments that have caused the budget deficit. Then, how does the government can address this deficit which has created a chaos in the ministries’ budgets.
“The government must stress on the implementation of its decisions related to the state’s general budget, which includes the need to reduce some expenditure items in the ministries.
“Instead of studying the tax law on state workers, the government was supposed to show its seriousness in addressing the deficit by reducing its expenditures and stopping rewards for excellent work. In fact, there is no excellence in government work that deserves a reward.
“The Kuwaiti people are poor, the government wants to impose taxes on the citizens, and the people’s representatives are preoccupied with other matters, and they did not adopt proposals for the benefit of the people, and some of them were satisfied with proposals to fix their rewards.
“The people are required to put an end to those who take advantage of their positions to achieve their interests and the interests of their relatives only.
“Do you think that a patriotic representative will cry to save the people from their wrong practices that have caused the state budget deficit and from the practices of representatives who have dedicated their years of membership in the parliament to achieve more personal gains for themselves and their relatives?”
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“The contradiction in government decisions has become the main obstacle to the return to normal life in Kuwait. The citizen no longer understands the reason for these contradictions, and the government deliberately tortures the citizen and puts obstacles in front of him. It is almost impossible, especially when it impedes the entry of domestic workers to Kuwait, when it knows the importance of this category of workers for Kuwaiti families including drivers who drive children to schools and universities, to female workers who take care of children in the absence of parents, especially working mothers,” columnist Dr. Hamad Al-Matar wrote for Al-Jarida daily.
“Given the above, we ask the ministers how they can get the various activities return to its normalcy. And how the schools and the universities, will open, while you are still closing everything and depriving the Kuwaiti families from all of the factors that represent the most important constituents for the resumption of normal life in the country, let alone you are still involved in torturing the citizens in addition to incurring on them the exorbitant costs?
“If the “Al-Durra” company, a government company for the recruitment of domestic workers, announced its willingness to apply the institutional quarantine for this labor for free in its buildings, then what is the justification for obligating the citizen to institutionalize the quarantine of the domestic worker in hotels?
“Are decisions made only for the benefit of hotel owners? Why not expand the sources of domestic labor, open outlets, and facilitate their recruitment from all countries where this type of labor is available, such as Ethiopia, Indonesia and Nepal, which is the step in the right direction to solve this problem. What are the reasons for the closure? We need to know these reasons.
“What is happening in Kuwait puts many question marks on government decisions. The Indian ambassador says that the actual cost of bringing in domestic workers is 300 dinars, so why should the citizen pay 900 dinars? And the Indian government says that the vaccination of ‘Covishield’ has been approved because it is the same as the ‘Oxford-AstraZeneca’ that is approved in Kuwait, and our government can communicate with the Indian government and coordinate with it, so why all this complication about the approved vaccinations?
“The government says that 70% of the population has received vaccination against the coronavirus, and that it has achieved community immunity, which is a good thing and a big step in the right direction, so why then are the closures still in place as if we have achieved nothing? Why the air space is not opened for the entry of workers returning to Kuwait under reasonable conditions that achieve the public interest, away from impossible conditions.
“We demand that the government look at the reality and respond to the simplest demands of the citizen. In the face of its strange and contradictory decisions, it is not possible to return to normal life, and it is required to facilitate, not complicate, this return.
Catalyst: Comprehensive return+government interest=solving the problem of domestic workers.”
“It is necessary, rather inevitable, for the concerned departments in the State to feel the danger of reluctance to resolve the issue of forgers who obtained Kuwaiti citizenship fraudulently, as well as those who hold dual nationalities. These issues are draining the State daily, round the clock and as quickly as possible just to take advantage of the privileges provided to Kuwaitis,” columnist Saud Al-Samaka wrote for Al-Seyassah daily.
“According to circulating figures, there are more than half a million forgers and holders of dual nationalities. This is the evidence of the State officials’ negligence over the past years in the relevant departments, even corruption in some of them and their participation in such a grave crime against their country.
“It is more dangerous that these people have reached decision-making positions in all important departments, especially the sources of legislation, laws production, educational institutions, security and economic departments. This has not happened in any other country around the world, that is, in the context of contemporary human history and before it.
“The State, especially under the current circumstances when economic and security matters have intensified, and in light of changes that other countries are making to purify themselves of this type of people who have become citizens contrary to legal justifications (forgery) or residing illegally, I say: ‘The State must seize the sword of initiative immediately in this aspect and assign a committee consisting of citizens known for their honesty and justice, and entrust them with the task of opening this file despite the circumstances and what the weakhearted had warned about that made it very difficult to open this file at present.”