KUWAIT: A security source said the Interior Ministry represented by the residency detectives department and in cooperation with the Manpower Public Authority (MPA) is gathering several forged government contracts that were presented by individuals to the government contracts department to bring in the largest possible number of workers. The source said the bilateral cooperation resulted in referring several contracts to investigation authorities.

New contracts

About new contracts, the source said more than 110,000 expats entered the country on work visas during 2015, while only 5,000 left. He said the new contracts included most nationalities and were distributed over government and private contracts. Meanwhile, a source at MPA said detectives offices started work at labor departments two weeks ago, and their work is to follow up and supervise only, while transaction processing is the responsibility of MPA employees. The source said detectives' presence contributes to stopping criminally-minded people and violations of patrons and employees, especially since 80 percent of violations of the law at the labor departments are by some mandoubs (company representatives) and companies in the private sector.

Annual increase

The source said a decision on annual salary increases in the private sector of KD 50 that should not exceed KD 600 per year applies to all job designations. He said if a company does not apply the annual increase, it can add the increase at the rate of two or three years, and should prove the employee did not receive an increase during those years. - Al-Qabas