MP Omar Al-Tabtabaei

KUWAIT: MP Omar Al-Tabtabaei asked Minister Hajraf about the salaries of employees at Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA), adding that an expatriate secretary at the director general's office prevents Kuwaitis from being appointed alongside her. Tabtabaei wanted to know the number of expat workers at the authority, their posts, salaries and incentives, besides plans to 'Kuwaitize' the authority's employees. He also wanted to know about the only secretary at the director general's office, adding that no Kuwaitis were appointed there because she is in control and keeps Kuwaitis from working with her. He asked for a copy of her contract, her salary and all rewards she received since her appointment until now.

Tabtabaei wanted to know whether the KIA managing director and one of the executives there are related, and the measures taken to guarantee professionalism and neutrality of decisions taken. He also wanted to know the degrees the director of the training department has and whether they were approved by the ministry of higher education. He asked for the financial incentives the director received after receiving his academic degree. He wanted to see degrees of all KIA workers who received them while at work and whether they were approved or not. Tabtabaei also wanted to know the number of KIA employees who graduated from Egyptian universities - both Kuwaitis and expats - and their jobs, salaries, allowances and incentives.

Expat advisors

Head of Fatwa and Legislation Department Salah Al-Musad said the department has not signed any contracts with new expat advisors since Oct 24, 2017, in an answer to a question by MP Abdulkareem Al-Kandari about terminating all expat law experts. The question was whether Musad issued a decision to terminate all expats appointed as legal researchers and sent a letter to the Civil Service Commission about the decision, and whether the fatwa and legislative department denied this.

Musad said no statement was made about terminating the services of all expats who are working as legal experts, but as a letter from the CSC recommended the appointment of an expat as a specialist legal expert, a letter was sent to the head of CSC to inform him that the department had decided not to appoint non-Kuwaitis. He said the department sent a letter on March 12, 2018 to the state minister for Cabinet affairs to discuss the renewal of loaning 10 advisors due to the department's need for their accumulated expertise. He said it is not right for the question to interfere in what is related to the work of the executive branch, which is something that clashes with the principle of separation of powers.

By A Saleh and Meshaal Al-Enezi