KUWAIT: Social security deputy director, Khaled Al-Fadhalah said that the optional retirement law opened for over 6,000 Kuwaitis to retire regardless of the standard age limit of 55 for men and 49 for women. Al-Fadhalah added that social security managed to maintain the minimum pension wage at KD 1,150 and said that the total number of retirees getting those pensions was 145,000 including disabled citizens.

630 expats in MOE
There are a total of 630 expats in leading positions in the Ministry of Education; that is 0.05 percent of the total number of Kuwaitis in the same or similar positions, said informed sources noting that those expats are only placed in positions that rarely employ Kuwaitis. The sources elaborated that Ahmadi education zone has the highest number of expats in leading positions with 130, followed by Farwaniya with 113, Kuwait City with 111, Jahra with 97, Mubarak Al-Kabeer with 72, Hawally with 70, private education with 19 and the religious education department with only 18.

Specialized officers
The interior ministry recently urged its various sectors to notify Saad Al-Abdullah Academy for Security Sciences with their needs regarding specialized officers pending the opening for a new batch of citizens with 2019-2020 university degrees in needed majors. Meanwhile, informed sources said that the total 160 expats were laid off by MOI in 2019-2020 and that most of them had been notified of the termination of their contract last January.

Price manipulation
Kuwait Union of Consumer Cooperative Societies (KUCCS) recently brought up the issue of item price manipulation on its website to a legal advisor. Informed sources added that union chairman, Khaled Al-Otaibi had noticed unjustified price increases of some items resulting from manipulated data at the pricing department adding that the decision was cancelled and an investigation was conducted to determine the culprits.

By A Saleh