PAAET instructors referred to prosecution for forging certificates

KUWAIT: Around 400 Manpower and Government Restructuring Program (MGRP) employees held a meeting to discuss their demands of suspending what they described as 'the random mergence' of MGRP with the Public Authority for Manpower. The meeting was attended by four of manpower authority officials - Ahmad Al-Moussa, Kholoud Shehab, Abdullah Al-Motoutah and Mubarak Al-Jafor, who stressed that they have no say in rejecting the merger decision.

The Civil Service Commission (CSC) had explained in recent press a statement that merging both state departments had four benefits including accelerating rand improving recruitment in the private sector, adjusting Kuwait's demography and fighting fake recruitment. In response, the protesting employees stressed that MGRP had already achieved three of those benefits, and that the numbers of Kuwaiti employees in the private sector had increased from 1,662 in 2001 to 74,078 in 2014, before they declined in 2015 to 63,553 in 2018.

Protestors blamed the decline on manpower authority restrictions and forcing citizens working for the private sector to get annual work permits and not protecting those laid off by the private sector. Protectors also reviewed what they had done with regards to improving the private sector's capability to employ citizens and increase their numbers, as well as fight fake employment. The protestors stressed that adjusting Kuwait's demography was the responsibility of the manpower authority and wondered what it had so far done in this regard.

Forged certificates

The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) referred two people to public prosecution for forging experience certificates to use them to work as instructors at the Faculty of Basic Education. Notably, PAAET administration had received complaints about suspicions in the documents some applicants had submitted and investigations proved that some were actually fake, which resulted in cancelling the appointment of four instructors, and two of them were referred to criminal prosecution.

School escort

Responding to social media reports about a court order accusing the public authority for disabled affairs of depriving an autistic child named Yasser of his constitutional rights, the authority's legal affairs manager Mubarak Al-Bedah said the court order only mandated the authority to provide an school escort and register him at Al-Nebras School, which the authority had been rejecting because its law does not oblige it to hire 'shadow teachers' for the disabled. Bedah added that the child has a severe mental disability and that his family has been receiving all financial incentives, in addition to tuition subsidies.

Environment project

The Ministry of Public Works' (MPW) Assistant Undersecretary for Sanitary Engineering Affairs Abdul Mohsen Al-Enezi said the deep tunnel project is one of the most important environment projects the ministry is working on and will offer it for bidding in the 2018-2019 budget. Enezi explained that the project will be executed in two phases - one to protect Kuwait Bay and the other to protect the coastline from Salmiya Cape southwards. He added that the tunnels will protect fish resources in Kuwait Bay by preventing rain or any other kind of water from flowing into it.

Enezi stressed that some rain drainage lines are being used to drain washing water and some chemicals, which is a violation of the environment law. He also noted that the new tunnels will drive rain and contaminated underground water to a main processing plant in Kabd for decontamination.

By Meshaal Al-Enezi and A Saleh