KUWAIT: The government has notified lawmakers of its approval to discuss the bedoons' (stateless residents) issue in a session to be held in November or December, well-informed parliamentary sources said. The sources added that the government stressed its intention to grant citizenship to 4,000 bedoons, starting with 2,000 by the end of this year. The sources explained that the proposed session will include voting on scrapping the central apparatus for illegal residents' affairs and subject it to the interior minister to be run by a secretary general acting as an undersecretary, especially since the current Chairman Saleh Al-Fadhalah's tenure expired a year ago and was not renewed.

Exams' rescheduling

The Ministry of Education (MoE) is considering rescheduling the exceptional second session exams to be held by the beginning of September instead of mid-October, which wastes around two months of school for students, said informed sources. In another educational concern, MoE's acting undersecretary Yousef Al-Najjar issued a ministerial decision on exams in government special education schools for the year 2018-2019.

Renewable energy

Seven companies have so far bought Al-Dibdibah Renewable Energy Plant project's qualification documents including six that had been previously excluded by Kuwait Oil Company (KOC), said informed sources at the Central Agency for Public Tenders (CAPT). The sources added that it was proven that the excluded companies were more serious and qualified for the project, for which 28 companies are competing. Notably, CAPT approved the qualification of 11 out of 18 companies that had filed grievances against being disqualified by KOC.

KPC's response

Responding to media reports about allegations attributed to the Cabinet committee entrusted to study the grilling filed against the oil minister and minister of electricity and water, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) strongly stressed its keenness on applying all legal regulations and accordingly refuted the reports, noting incomplete and unprofessional information was used as facts. Commenting on alleged violations in the clean fuel project, KPC stressed that both monthly and quarterly reports are regularly made since the project's contract was signed in 2014, adding that these reports are submitted to relevant authorities including the State Audit Bureau, the General Secretariat of the Supreme Council for Planning and Development, Kuwait National Petroleum Company's (KNPC) projects committee and board of directors, KPC's planning office and the government performance follow-up agency, which all transparently showed the actual percentage of the project's accomplishment. KPC also refuted allegations of sustaining a KD 1 billion loss, explaining that the sum was estimated based on inaccurate assumptions, and various demands made by contractors are subject to a long series of procedures that have not yet been completed.

By A Saleh