60+ top oil workers face sack
No exceptions, aim to inject new blood: KPC
KUWAIT CITY, April 20: The Board of Directors of the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) will not renew the service term of oil leaders who have reached the legal age of 60 years or completed more than 35 years of service in the oil sector, reports Al-Qabas daily.
Informed sources from the oil sector said, “Heads of oil companies, managing directors and managers who have reached or will reach the age of 60 years in a few months have been informed of this approach. This is aimed at injecting new blood into the executive body of the corporation and its subsidiaries, and giving an opportunity to young leaders. There will be no exceptions in this regard”.
The sources affirmed that there is no change in the criteria, the mechanism and conditions for selecting candidates to fill the vacant leadership positions in KPC, adding that if there is a change in these conditions, it will be made after filling the current vacancies.
Regarding the article published in Al-Qabas daily in its issue dated March 28, 2022 under the title “A typo that drops the promotions of oil leaders” that resulted in a parliamentary interaction, the sources explained that it has actually become clear to the current administration that the compensation committee in 2017 acknowledged the existence of a typographical error by adopting the 32-year condition for filling leadership positions but the 33-year-old is just a typo.
However, the committee did not work on correcting the error by raising the decision again to the Board of Directors for correction. Hence, the successive administrations of the institution continued to make the same mistake, but the current administration decided to re-examine the decision from a legal point of view to correct the error.
Leaders in the administrative affairs sector of KPC are pushing for disrupting the implementation of the grievance committee’s Decision No. 2/2022 that was approved by the CEO. This decision was related to canceling the promotions of a group of employees. It was published in Al-Qabas daily on April 3, 2022 under the title “Cancellation of Promotions in the “Petroleum” after a grievance by employees”, with a request to refer the decision to the legal unit in preparation for its cancellation.
The sources went on to explain that leaders in administrative affairs sector had previously worked to marginalize the role of the grievance committee by pressuring the former CEO of KPC to refer a previous decision related to canceling the promotion of the director of the Human Resources Experience Center to the Fatwa and Legislation Department with the aim of disabling and canceling the committee’s decision. The opinion of the Fatwa and Legislation Department was in line with the recommendation of the grievance committee at the time.
The goal of establishing the grievance committee is to remove injustice faced by employees, especially since the opponent in many cases is the administrative affairs sector. Courtesies may empty the goal of establishing the grievance committee from its content, and may make the institution’s management a nonneutral party against the committee, especially since the decisions of the grievance committee, even if they are in the interests of the grievances, are either to correct a procedural or regulatory error, or to put an end to the abuse of executive powers, and this is what must be stressed and fully adhered to.
Ships allowed to dock: The Kuwait Ports Authority officials said a decision has been taken to allow the ships stranded in Kuwait’s waters to dock and unload their cargo provided the entry permits are issued to them by the Maritime Transport Sector of the Ministry of Communications, reports Al-Rai daily.
The daily said the sector has promised to issue the permits Thursday. In a special statement to the daily, the Kuwait Ports Authority (KPA) said it is not a party to the inability of the eight ships to unload their cargo but pointed a finger at the Ministry of Communications saying the entry permits have not been issued.
An unidentified KPA official said the authority has not prevented the entry of any licensed vessel, and that what specifically happened was that the vessels were kept at distance until the permits are issued by the Maritime Transport Sector.
The sources stated that after the port officials intervened to provide a quick solution, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, Fahd Al-Sharia’an was informed and the latter promised to solve the problem immediately.