KUWAIT: The Civil Service Commission (CSC) is currently considering a new mechanism to be followed on recruiting children of Kuwaiti women in the public sector next year, said informed sources. The sources explained that children of Kuwaiti women will need a separate recruitment system and those holding diplomas or higher qualifications could register for recruitment twice a year. The plan is to give priority to hiring of children of Kuwaiti women right after offering jobs to Kuwaitis as the state plans to limit the number of foreign laborers in the public sector as much as possible. Separately, the Ministry of Education's (MoE) psychological and social services department requested exemption from the CSC decision to substitute expats with Kuwaitis for two years to get prepared for the shift. The department also justified its request by the negative impact the decision will have on specialized service students get in various stages, especially since it is already understaffed and suffers from shortage in the numbers of psychological and social researchers, as many Kuwaitis refrain from such jobs. The department added that MoE has gone a long way in approving special allowances and incentives to attract more Kuwaitis.

More labs

Chairman of the Kuwait Union for Foodstuff Traders and Manufacturers Abdullah Al-Buaijan called for the immediate establishment of more labs at all borders to test imported food samples, noting that it was illogical to depend on one lab for over 40 years to examine all imported food items and prevent unjustified price hikes in local markets. Buaijan said that having more than one lab will help speed up examinations of samples, prevent possible losses for importers as a result of delaying their shipments and control prices in local markets. Buaijan complained that handling fees collected in Kuwaiti are too high - KD 220 for a 20-feet container and KD 400 for a 40-feet one.

Budge deficit

Finance ministry statistics showed that the total budget deficit in the period starting with the current fiscal year in April until the end of October was KD 3.3 billion, including KD 848 million transferred to PAI, and 10 percent deposited in the future generations fund. Statistics also showed that total revenues in the past seven months amounted to KD 8.4 billion, while expenditure was KD 10.9 billion.

Second-hand vehicles

The Ministry of Commerce and Industry finally decided on two projects for selling second-hand vehicles - one for regular vehicles located over an area of 500,000 sq m to the east of Kabd highway, and another for heavy machinery and trucks to the west of Arifjan. The ministry offered the West Arifjan project for bidding through the PPP authority to build an integrated marketplace with all needed services and auctioning facilities such as air-conditioned halls, high-tech equipment, canopied display corridors, and official offices for the municipality, as well as the interior and commerce ministries.

Water coolers

The Environment Public Authority (EPA) recently urged the Ministry of Education (MoE) to stop using water coolers in many schools unless they are maintained and filters are replaced. EPA stressed in a letter sent recently to MoE that the former had examined drinking water in a number of schools and found that many of them had not conducted the required maintenance of water coolers, which calls for an immediate suspension on using them until the filters are changed.

By A Saleh