Lawmakers oppose report on government debt

KUWAIT: Lawmakers leave the Abdullah Al-Salem Hall in the National Assembly yesterday after Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem called off the session due to lack of quorum. — KUNA

KUWAIT: The National Assembly session failed to convene yesterday due to a lack of quorum as only one minister and just 19 lawmakers showed up for the meeting although they required just a few more fulfill the needed number. MP Hamdan Al-Azemi said the absence was deliberate to prevent the session from starting as 25 MPs and five ministers had registered their names but only 19 MPs and one minister came to the chamber.

The session was supposed to discuss a number of important issues including a report on domestic helpers and why a government company has failed to reduce the recruitment costs. The session came a day after a marathon grilling of the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Hind Al-Sabeeh over a string of alleged financial and administrative violations and her failure to check the imbalance in the demographic structure which remains in the favor of expatriates.

The grilling ended with 10 MPs filing a no-confidence motion. The voting on the motion will take place on January 31 but the minister appears in a strong position to survive the vote. Three of the 10 lawmakers who filed the motion are the grillers themselves which shows that the support to the motion is not too strong. To pass, the motion requires 25 votes of the elected MPs and not the ministers.

Yesterday, MPs Abdullah Al-Roumi and Safa Al-Hashem said they will not support the no-confidence motion. But as the assembly has just finished this grilling, opposition lawmakers started talking about another quiz to the Minister of State for National Assembly Affairs Adel Al-Kharafi.

MP Riyadh Al-Adasani has threatened to grill Kharafi if he does not quit or if the prime minister does not dismiss him for allegedly not carrying out his duties in the proper way. Opposition MP Abdulkarim Al-Kandari yesterday called on Kharafi to step down in a bid to protect himself from the grilling, while Hashem said she is likely to join Adasani in grilling the minister.

In the meantime, 19 MPs filed a request calling to pull out a report by the assembly financial and economic affairs committee on allowing the government to borrow up to KD 25 billion. The MPs are calling to send the report to the assembly budgets committee to review the report and rectify mistakes in the original report.

Sabeeh meanwhile assured National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem and MPs, namely the legislators who interpolated her, that she would seriously look into the issues they raised. All the views and ideas expressed during the grilling session would be under examination for tackling any shortcomings or irregularities in the department, the minister said in a statement to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA). "Everybody knows that whenever there is work and bids errors will possibly take place," said the minister. "There will be lots of responsibilities and objectives that we seek to attain with the MPs' participation and support for sake of a dignified livelihood for the citizens as well as for safeguarding public funds."

By B Izzak