MP donates $10,000 for family of Lebanese self-immolation victim Kuwait prepares first sustainable development report

KUWAIT: MP Khalaf Dumaitheer recently donated the sum of $10,000 plus a monthly salary to the family of Lebanese man George Zreik, who killed himself outside his children’s private school in Lebanon. Notably, Zreik self-immolated in protest over depriving his daughter the right to get a score sheet because he had not paid the school fees. He died in hospital with over 90 percent burns on his body.

Replacement plan

The Ministry of Education (MoE) administrative affairs sector urged assistant undersecretaries to prepare and hand over lists of expat teachers, social workers and office porters to be included in the replacement plans so that proper measures could be taken at least three months prior to terminating their contracts. Notably, the Civil Service Commission (CSC) had urged MoE in November to terminate the contracts of 1,186 expat teachers and administrative staff members to replace them with Kuwaitis.

Vacant positions

Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Fahd Al-Shula expressed plans to fill vacant assistant undersecretaries’ positions with ministry staff members, noting that the ministry of awqaf is full of qualified and skilled staff members capable of achieving its vision. Shula added that during his meeting with the ministry’s supreme planning committee, he asked to adjust the charters of official missions and conferences abroad in a way that guarantees staff rights and prevent profiteering and favoritism. “Missions will be restricted to Kuwaiti employees only,” he underlined.

Extra credit

In a proactive measure to handle the state budget accounts and related parliamentary agreements, the government referred two bills to open an extra credit for the oil and health ministries in the fiscal year 2018-2019, which allows them to withdraw KD 1,219,000,000 from the state’s general reserves to settle up the two accounts. Head of the parliamentary budgets and final statements committee MP Adnan Abdulsamad said the committee would consult the State Audit Bureau on this extra credit prior to discussing the government’s proposal. Abdulsamad added that with the extra sum, the sum declared by the finance minister as the new budget would increase by KD 1,219,000,000.

Sustainable development Secretary General of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development Khaled Mahdi urged over 20 government bodies to submit the information they have concerning executing sustainable development goals to prepare Kuwait’s first report and submit it to the UN in July. Speaking while presiding the sustainable development committee’s meeting which included representatives from various government bodies, NGOs, the private sector and state auditing bodies, Mahdi hailed a number of government bodies that have already submitted their data, including the defense, justice and electricity and water ministries, in addition to the National Guard, Central Bank, Kuwait University, the Public Authority for Manpower, Kuwait Fire Service Directorate and the Kuwait Credit Bank.

Education Ministry urged to hire more Kuwaitis

List of disabilities

Head of the kinetic disability assessment committee at the Public Authority for the Disabled Dr Salem Ali AlKandari said the authority is fully committed to international standards on assessing a disability by specialized doctors who thoroughly examine the patient and their medical reports and tests in addition to their case history. Responding to an inquiry about disabled persons, specifically on requests to list spinal-related problems among the list of disabilities, Kandari added that some disc pains are curable except for those which have an impact on the spinal cord and nerves, as some of those may lead to paralysis and affect the patient’s daily routine.