KUWAIT: Former speaker and the second electoral constituency candidate Marzouq Al-Ghanem said thanks to activating the role played by the Audit Bureau through the 2013 parliament, 52 percent of the violations in various ministries over the past decade have been addressed. Speaking to constituents in Faiha, Ghanem stressed that the Audit Bureau's remarks are the real indicators of violations and corruption. He added that the bureau made remarks to all ministers and gave them a one-month period to respond to those remarks, which eventually helped reduce violations by 52 percent. Ghanem also said the 2013 parliament passed 114 laws - the highest rate of legislations by any parliament. He noted that the parliament resolved a great deal of the housing problem by building new cities and distributing 30 percent more units than those distributed since 1956.

Job opportunities

The Egyptian labor attache in Kuwait Mohammed Safan said 1,200 job opportunities were found for Egyptians over the past two months and that more were yet to materialize in the near future.

Suspended companies

The manpower authority instructed all labor departments concerning the procedures to be followed with various companies according to special codes. The authority explained that companies' files suspended under codes 31, 32, 72, 331, 332, 231, 233 and 131 would remain totally suspended and they are only allowed to cancel residencies pending departure. The authority added that all types of transactions would remain suspended for files under code 71, while those suspended under code 73 would not be allowed to add new workers or renew work permits. "Those suspended under code 74 cannot add new files, while those under codes 333 and 234 are only allowed transfers or cancellations for departure," the authority explained.

Social allowance

Secretary General of the Manpower and Government Restructuring Program Fauzi Al-Majdali said the government aims to limit and reduce social allowance paid to citizens in the public sector. Majdali explained that the aim was to fight all forms of violations, forgery and unlawful payment through fake recruitment of citizens only to get the allowance.

Economic unity

GCC Economic Development authority members, in a meeting in Riyadh, set a special schedule to put the GCC unified customs and unified market decisions into practice by the end of 2017 in order to eventually achieve complete economic unity by 2025. Assistant secretary general Dr Abdul Aziz Al-Owaisheq said the focus is on these issues and that specialists in GCC countries would coordinate to exchange views so that they could all work in parallel to Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 plan.

By A Saleh