7,200 state employees eligible for retirement
Kuwait paving way for smooth retirement
More than 7,200 employees working in the state departments, including 297 senior officials, qualify for retirement, according to a recent report which came even as Kuwait launched efforts to facilitate the exit of public sector employees who have reached the retirement age.
A majority of these employees have served for at least 30 years in the Ministry of Education. Their number was pegged at 1100, said the sources who spoke to Al-Qabas on the condition of anonymity. They further indicated that the retirement cases of 110 senior officials were already settled “while those related to 187 others remain pending.”
The cabinet recently approved a decision stipulating immediate retirement for senior officials serving for long years after offering them incentives in the form of half of their monthly salary for each year in service for those who retire before the end of June.
The sources, however, suggested that an undersecretary who earned a KD12,000 annual bonus, and an assistant undersecretary entitled to a KD8,000 annual bonus was likely to pass on an incentive in the range of an average of KD750 for undersecretaries and KD500 for assistant undersecretaries. Meanwhile, the sources expressed concern that easing out senior officials including assistant undersecretaries, directors and supervisors could leave huge gaps in certain departments which lack qualified candidates to fill the voids thus created.
The concern was most serious perhaps in the Ministry of Education, which has a long list of senior officials eligible for retirement including recently appointed undersecretary Mariyam Al-Wutaid. Education Minister Nayef Al-Hajraf had recently explained that the retirement decision remains optional “and it was up to the senior officials to make,” but sources quoted anonymously by Al-Rai yesterday revealed that six assistant undersecretaries have already filed for retirement so that they do not miss out on the recently awarded incentive.
One senior official who spoke to Al-Rai on the condition of anonymity argued in the meantime that the government’s retirement decision was in contradiction with the Civil Service Commission’s regulations which set the retirement age at 65.
“There are officials aged 50 years, and even 48 years, amongst us who have served for over 30 years... Retirement is going to deprive the ministry of the long experience of officials who still have a lot to give,” the official said.
The new stipulations came as efforts were being made to keep in check the soaring unemployment rates which have reached 4.9 percent of the national labor force in Kuwait, a country where job creation is considered a constitutional right of citizens. Minister of Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad AlAbdullah Al-Sabah said earlier this month that there were 19,400 Kuwaitis waiting for jobs in the public sector.
In other news, Al-Qabas reported yesterday that Minister of Electricity and Water Abdul-Aziz Al-Ibrahim had asked 18 state departments to provide details about energy saving steps undertaken by each of them within the next two weeks, otherwise he planned to coordinate with the cabinet to impose penalties. According to sources familiar with the case, the departments accused of electricity and water wastage included the ministries of interior, health, defense, municipality, public works and commerce, in addition to public authorities of youth and sports, industry and agricultural affairs.—Al-Qabas & Al-Rai