KUWAIT: Recent statistics by the Manpower and Government Restructuring Program (MGRP) showed 6,893 citizens were appointed in the private sector and 5,883 in the public sector (the government) over the past five months, which adds up to 12,776 citizens. Statistics also showed that the total number of citizens seeking jobs who had been registered with MGRP for over six months now and still unemployed, who do not get any pension and are not registered in any educational facility is 11,473, including one holding a PhD degree, 95 holding masters degrees, 5,633 holding university degrees, 1,598 holding diplomas, 1,771 holding high school certificates, 1,743 with intermediate school certificates, 79 with vocational training and 532 who have not finished intermediate school.

5,000 applicants

Member of the parliamentary replacement and employment committee MP Saleh Ashour said 5,000 citizens who had not finished high school and are registered with the Civil Service Commission's (CSC) employment program are likely to have their applications frozen, especially those who had rejected certain jobs such as students' escorts and those who do not update their information with CSC. Ashour added an ad would be published soon urging applicants to update their information to avoid freezing their applications. He added that applications of those who reject available jobs will also be frozen.

Wasteful expenditure

Finance Minister Nayef Al-Hajraf stressed that the ministry is working on fighting wasteful expenditure without affecting investments that increased in the fiscal year 2018-2019 from 17 to 18 percent. Hajraf added that the ministry is keen on stopping waste through the national economic and financial sustainability program. He added that cutting government expenses is in progress at all ministries, especially in the last quarter of the fiscal year in the form of hospitality expenses, parties, official missions, newspapers and training abroad. Hajraf added that the ministry has also set new system to approve public projects as well as a new strategy to cut subsidies and re-price public services to help rationalize the use of public facilities and control their operational cost.

No more grievances

The Ministry of Education (MoE) has stopped receiving grievances from high school students concerning their final exams, said informed sources, noting that hundreds of students had filed such grievances to look into allowing them sit for the second session exams. The sources added that the majority of the applicants are students who had been prevented from taking the exam after being caught cheating and stressed that MoE will examine some applicants' exam papers and make its final decision this week.

By A Saleh