By A Saleh

KUWAIT: Informed sources said the Public Authority for Manpower has prepared a new study that includes procedures and rules related to payment of national labor allowances in the private sector. "The amendments include remedies for several recommendations approved previously by the National Assembly's budgets committee, and also deals with comments by the State Audit Bureau in its accounting reports about the budget of the manpower authority and its annual closing accounts," they said.

The study will be submitted to the Cabinet within days so it can be reviewed and approved by the ministerial economic committee before it receives final approval for implementation, the sources said. They added that the study will rationalize labor support by concentrating on paying actual workers in the private sector and not bogus employees.

"The new rules will make sure any citizen who receives the allowance is in Kuwait and not somewhere else, because it was discovered that there are Kuwaiti employees who work only on paper, but live in other countries whose nationality they have and keep the truth hidden," the sources said.

The sources said the amendments guarantee employment in the private sector through the manpower authority and under its supervision, as it contacts the employer and inspections will be made to make sure that the person is really at work. "This will be repeated many times and not just once," the sources explained.

They said there are plans to stop the national labor support paid to Kuwaitis who work in the private sector with a salary of over KD 5,000, as they are assume senior positions in private companies, receive high salaries and do not meet the true goal behind approving national labor support, which is to attract Kuwaitis to work in non-government sectors. "This means that those whose salaries are over KD 5,000 will remain in the private sector with or without the allowance," the sources argued.

The sources said the total amount of money spent annually for national labor support in the private sector is more than KD 500 million, adding that this large amount is spent according to certain conditions sat by the authority's national labor affairs sector.

Meanwhile, the manpower authority announced there are 150 job vacancies available for Kuwaitis in the private sector in various specialties. The authority said Director of Manpower Affairs Sultan Al-Shaalany will explain the most important steps the authority adopts in the next stage in order to employ the largest number of citizens in the private sector and provide them with a suitable atmosphere.

It said the incentives available made a large number of youth work in the private sector, especially since the manpower authority coordinated with a large number of banks and major companies to support youth employment and provide them with job opportunities.