ShareBy B Izzak
KUWAIT: The National Assembly on Tuesday passed in the second and final reading a law that bars conflict of interests, which stipulates jail terms and hefty fines for ministers, MPs and civil servants who misuse their jobs to make personal gains from graft. MPs also passed in the second reading an amendment to the penal code to include what is called a juridical person, a non-human legal person like corporates, government bodies, non-governmental organizations or international organizations, in corruption cases in courts.
MPs said the amendment was needed to fill a big loophole in laws designed to fight corruption, which target only natural humans and not legal entities. Since its inauguration in October, the opposition-dominated Assembly has passed a number of laws to fight corruption. The Assembly also began debating the housing cities law which aims to accelerate building homes for citizens and allows seeking direct help from foreign companies.
Rapporteur of the housing panel MP Abdulaziz Al-Saqaabi said the bill calls for the establishment of companies to build new cities and residential areas with the help of foreign companies as strategic partners and who can operate in the country without the need for a local agent. Saqaabi said based on government statistics, the housing welfare establishment has enough land for up to 200,000 houses, more than enough to meet accumulated applications by citizens. The applications are estimated at more than 100,000.
The foreign partner will provide the necessary financing for preparing the land and building the homes. According to the bill, the companies must be established within three years and 50 percent of their shares must be distributed to Kuwaitis. Some MPs said the draft legislation will be a qualitative move to resolve the chronic housing problem affecting a majority of Kuwaitis. The Assembly will continue to debate the bill today.
The Assembly also approved a motion to speed up debating a number of important issues, including the purchase of some KD 14 billion in consumer and personal loans of Kuwaitis. But the government demanded the postponement of the debate for two weeks and its request was granted by the speaker on the basis of the law.
