By A Saleh

KUWAIT: The Philippines department of labor issued a decision allowing its nationals who got their work abroad permits before Jan 15 to leave for Kuwait, including domestic helpers. Commenting on the decision, chairman of the domestic helper agencies union Khaled Al-Dakhnan said the decision was a 'partial relief' and that the crisis might be resolved within the coming few days.

"Negotiations are promising and positive results may be seen next week," Dakhnan said, pointing out that both countries wish to get past the consequences of the recent death of a maid, especially after the Kuwaiti government referred the suspects to the criminal court over charges of first degree murder.

Expats' salaries
MP Abdullah Al-Kandari filed a parliamentary inquiry against Minister of Finance and Acting Minister of State for Economic Affairs Mariam Al-Aqeel concerning expat employees in state departments. Kandari requested a list of the total number of expat government employees over the past five years and how many of them earn less than KD 500 a month.

Meanwhile, MP Mohammed Al-Huwailah yesterday resigned from the parliamentary financial affairs committee to bring the total number of resigned members to four - Saleh Ashour, Bader Al-Mulla, Oudah Al-Ruwaei and Huwailah, said informed sources. The sources added that the committee's chairperson MP Safa Al-Hashem can no longer hold any meetings due to lack of quorum with the remaining two members - Khaled Dumaitheer and Majed Al-Mutairi.

Housing projects
Minister of Public Works and Minister of State for Housing Affairs Rana Al-Fares said the Mutlaa and South Saad Al-Abdullah housing projects are currently top priority at the Public Authority for Housing Welfare. Fares added the Cabinet shows a great interest in both projects and that she toured them both to inspect them and check the progress of work.

Setline scores
Chairman of the Cooperative Societies Union Meshaal Al-Sayyar strongly condemned what he described as utilizing cooperative work to settle political scores. Sayyar added that he strongly rejects unjustified and unlawful interferences in co-ops in the form of appointing unneeded board members by the ministry for the sake of creating balances.