MPW’s percentage of ‘spending’ on projects 33pc at Q2 of fiscal yr

‘Disbursement rate expected to witness remarkable hike’

KUWAIT CITY, Oct 16: The Ministry of Public Works (MPW) said the percentage of spending on ministry projects at the end of the second quarter of the fiscal year on Sept 30 last was 33% of the total project allocations in the current budget, which is 791 million dinars, reports Al-Qabas daily quoting well-informed sources.

The sources said the development plan projects are given a strong focus because of their importance in the government’s work program, which is reflected in the recent visits of the Council of Ministers to a number of those projects affiliated with the ministry.

The sources explained the new Kuwait airport project, one of those pillars, was allocated 380 million dinars in the current fiscal, and 30% of this has already been spent. As for the Maternity Hospital project, 70 million dinars have been allocated, and the disbursement rate has reached 50% to date.

The sources stated the Mubarak port project, the first phase of which is about to be completed, was 8 million dinars, 27% of which has been spent, while 50 million dinars were allocated for the Umm Al-Haiman station expansion project, 22% of which were spent.

The sources expect the disbursement rate will witness a remarkable increase in the third and fourth quarters of the current fiscal, in light of the Cabinet’s directives to overcome the obstacles facing state projects, foremost of which are projects implemented by the Ministry of Public Works, as well as its emphasis more than once on the need to remedy the delay rates in projects and to hold the concerned parties accountable, foremost the negligent contractors, which will lead to an increase in the percentage of completion and consequently, the contractors’ payments to be increased accordingly.