211 expired contracts with 5,792 workers registered on them

KUWAIT: Official sources at the Public Authority for Manpower said the authority allows, through its committee handling disputes, the transfer of workers registered on government contracts to work for another government contract in exchange for certain fees. The authority denied issuance of transfer decisions in exchange of fees from a government contract to the private sector - rather the rules are limited to transferring to the main file that belongs to the same sponsor, with the possibility of having the worker leave the main file to work for a government contract only.

Meanwhile, the authority's Deputy Director General for Labor Affairs Hassan Al-Khader said that the authority wrote to labor departments to hold the files of companies that have expired contracts with the government until they complete processing the workers with them. Khader said this measure comes with the authority's periodical review of government contracts and projects, adding that this revealed the existence of several contracts that expired on Sept 31, 2018. The number of these contracts is 211 with a total of 5,792 workers.

Firemen's rewards
Sources said the Finance Ministry approved the Kuwait Fire Service Directorate's (KFSD) request to increase rewards of firemen to reach KD 2.7 million for the previous fiscal year for their efforts during the extraordinary circumstances the country went through. The sources said the KFSD rewards were initially KD 1.2 million, then after keeping all workers on duty during the rains, the request was made to increase the rewards by an additional KD 1.5 million. He said there are 4,805 special jobs for firemen, in addition to 584 general jobs.

Road billboards
Kuwait Municipality's deputy director general for Capital and Jahra affairs and head of the advertisements committee Faisal Al-Jumaa said the municipality is keen to open qualification opportunities every year for all advertisement agencies bidding to win contracts for road billboards. He said the committee sets conditions and rules for all companies that are unchanged for many years. He said the number of qualified companies is 12, adding that qualifications are open for companies yearly for those who did not qualify previously, or new companies. In other news, the Central Tenders Committee approved the tender of South Khaitan residential project that many citizens were waiting for. The tendering time was dropped from three months to one month.

High school exams
The Education Ministry is ready for high school exams that will begin on May 7 for 10th and 11th grades, and May 19 for 12th grade, as it estimates the number of students who will enter exam classes at 120,000 . Meanwhile, source said Education Ministry Undersecretary Dr Saud Al-Harbi will provide Kuwait University and the Public Authoirty for Applied Education and Training with the number of expected graduates from the 12th grade, categorized according to gender and type of qualification. He said that the ministry carries out this measure every year since the crisis of university admittance during the academic year 2012/2013 in order to provide enough seats for general secondary graduates in all colleges.

By A Saleh and Meshaal Al-Enezi