Education Ministry collected KD 6.6 million in fines from contractors

KUWAIT: MP Abdullah Al-Kandari announced that his Twitter account was hacked, causing its sudden suspension. Kandari added that he had been expecting this after his assertions in the media concerning the interference of foreign parties in the case of a jailed Russian woman who was convicted by a Kuwaiti court of misappropriating public funds in the 'Port Fund' case. "These actions are only attempts to silence me at this particular time so as not to complicate things more for those involved in the case," he underlined, noting that he will never keep silent or give up the case. Further, Kandari said that he has a "big, shocking surprise" for those involved in the case and promised to announce it soon with new documents.

KD 6.6 million
The Ministry of Education (MoE) collected KD 6.6 million in fines and penal clauses imposed on contractors who failed to respect the terms in the contracts they had signed with the ministry in the period of 2015-2018. In this regard, informed sources said MoE had confiscated the guarantees deposited by some companies, adding that the fines collected in 2015 totaled KD 1.8 million, KD 2.2 million in 2016, KD 452,000 in 2017 and KD 1.2 million in 2018.

Municipality fees
Minister of Awqaf and Islamic affairs and Minister of State for Municipal Affairs Fahd Al-Sholah stressed that the fees collected by Kuwait Municipality have not been raised. Responding to inquiries by MPs Mohammed Al-Dallal and Abdulwahab Al-Babtain, Sholah said the municipality will soon propose adjusting them and stressed that proposals to increase municipal service fees are subject to studies, which initially suggested increasing them by 50 percent with the aim of increasing municipal revenues and diversifying them.

Rent allowance
The Public Authority for Housing Welfare formed a special committee to scrutinize all rent allowance transactions to check their legality and validity. The committee, formed by Minister Jenan Bushehri on requests by lawmakers, will examine all transactions to find whether any are fake, especially since the total value of rent allowance paid over the past two years was KD 464 million.
In a different issue, informed sources said the authority had approved a request made by the contractor building vertical housing units in Jaber Al-Ahmad City to cut the total number of buildings from 128 to 104. The sources explained that the change came in response to objections made by residents of nearby houses on grounds that their houses will be exposed to the high-rises.

Policeman insulted
An Egyptian man was arrested for insulting a policeman on duty at a hotel checkpoint, said security sources, noting that the suspect allegedly shouted threats at the policeman. Further investigations are still in progress.

By A Saleh