ShareKUWAIT: The National Assembly yesterday, meeting in a special session, approved the 2016/2017 budgets and the final accounts of eight new government bodies and voted to approve government-sponsored amendments to sports laws to facilitate lifting of international sanctions. MPs voted by 46 in favor with six against to a new sports law that allows the government to dissolve sports federations and clubs for the sake of public interest. It however gives these bodies the right to challenge the dissolution in court.
It also changes the voting to the single-vote system which allows members of clubs to elect only one member in the board. The previous system allowed members to vote for all the board members. Some MPs strongly criticized Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah, chairman of the Olympic Council of Asia and senior member of international sports organizations and his younger brother Sheikh Talal, chairman of the Kuwait Olympic Committee, blaming them for causing the suspension of Kuwaiti sports internationally. MP Abdullah Al-Turaiji asked until when the two brothers will continue to control the Kuwaiti sports and wondered why the international ports bodies do not interfere in other Gulf countries.
He called on the government to dissolve all sports bodies in the country after the amendment. But a number of MPs warned that the amendments will likely bring more government control and interference in sports and accordingly will not help lift the international suspension.
Minister of Information and Youth Sheikh Salman Al-Humoud Al-Sabah said the suspension of Kuwaiti sports was orchestrated by some Kuwaiti sports officials whom he did not name. He said the government has tried hard to convince the international sports governing authorities that the Kuwaiti government does not interfere in sports and on the contrary it provides generous aid to all federations and clubs. He said that the existing situation in the Kuwaiti sports cannot continue, especially that those who are leading the country's sports are the ones who filed the complaint against Kuwait.
He said the legislation will provide the solution to the problems of Kuwaiti sports and will lead to privatization, adding that those who want to control clubs should pay from their pockets to establish such clubs. The minister said that the government should have the right to monitor how its millions of dinars in aid are spent.
MPs also voted to approve the budgets of Public Manpower Authority, Public Authority for Applied Education and Training, Public Authority for the Handicapped, Public Compensation Claims Authority, Environment Public Authority, the Fire Department, Kuwait University and Public Authority for Civil Information.
During the debate, a large number of MPs strongly criticized the long delay in the project of the new government university in Shadadiya area and blamed the administration for the delay.
MP Jamal Al-Omar said there is no justification for the delay of the vital project which has already taken eight years and is likely to miss its new date next year. He said many fires have erupted in the construction site of the university and warned that the recently-signed airport expansion project could experience the same fate since they have the same contractor.
MP Yousef Al-Zalzalah said implementation in the new university is just above 40 percent and wondered what causes the delay when funds are available. He said the delay is forcing the government to pay an additional KD 50 million per year for internal scholarships.
Education and Higher Education Minister Bader Al-Issa said the delays were caused by the large number of variation in orders, adding that the project should be referred to the ministry of public works because the university does not have the technical staff to oversee the project. The minister said that the number of scholarships has not changed and is 6,000 for overseas and 4,000 locally. MP Faisal Al-Duwaisan said there is a political reason behind the delay as the government does not want thousands of students to gather in one campus and be a focal point for political unrest like in other countries.
By B Izzak
