KUWAIT: Well-informed sources announced that Ministry of Education (MoE) recently terminated the contracts of a new group of 176 expats including 135 social workers and librarians, 20 engineers, eight accountants, seven legal investigators and six employees working at the educational research department. The sources added that a list of the employees' names had been submitted to minister for approval.

Local biofuel loan
KNPC will start paying the biannual installments of the KD 2.1 billion local biofuel loan signed with local banks on April 28, 2016, said informed sources, noting that the payments would be biannually paid until April 28, 2026 with a one percent interest rate.

University aptitude tests
Manager of Kuwait University's center of evaluation and measurement Dr Rawa Al-Jarallah announced that 8,600 high school students had registered to undergo aptitude tests on May 4, 2019. Jarallah added that the center is fully prepared for the tests and has allocated three different sites to hold them, which will help reduce traffic congestions at each site and help students show up on time.

Fingerprint systems
The foreign ministry officially contacted Kuwaiti embassies abroad demanding the use of fingerprint systems as soon as possible for all staff members, said informed sources, noting that the system is already used in some embassies where host countries allow the system, which is not the case in France, which considers the system a violation of privacy.

Custom dept employees
Head of the custom department employees' syndicate Ahmed Oqlah Al-Enezi blamed Ports Authority officials for preventing custom employees from entering Shuwaikh Port to do their jobs. "We are not holding a sit-in - it was the Ports Authority that closed the front gate and prevented employees from entering," Enezi explained, noting that the problem is in asking employees to pay a KD 180 annual fee for using the authority's parking spaces. "It is un acceptable to overburden employees with such fees to park their vehicles," he added.

By A Saleh