LOCA LTUESDAY, APRIL 18, 2017

KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah chairs the Cabinet’s weekly regular session yesterday. — KUNA

KUWAIT: The Cabinet discussed a recommenda-tion made by Kuwait Investment Authority toestablish a closed shareholding company to runJaber Al-Ahmad Hospital, provided that it wouldbe turned into a public joint company in thefuture through a public auction. During its week-ly meeting yesterday, the Cabinet also asked theMinistry of Health to consider suggestions andrecommendations made by the human andsocial development committee of the SupremeCouncil for Planning and Development toimprove health services in the country.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet has entrusted theKuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR)with creating a national committee for research,scientific, technology and innovation. KISR willdo the fresh mission with all relevant regulatoryand legal aspects, in collaboration with otherconcerned state agencies, Minister of State forCabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah said in a press statement fol-lowing the meeting that took place at BayanPalace. KISR will have to send a report to theCabinet in this regard within a month’s time,added Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, who dou-bles as Acting Minister of Information.

Furthermore, the Cabinet tasked the Ministryof Public Works to take required measures tospeed up the implementation of beach develop-ment projects in the context of a relevanttourism development drive.

At the onset of the meeting, His Highness thePrime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, who chaired the meeting,

briefed the ministers on the outcomes of therecent visit by Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir to Kuwait. First Deputy Prime Minister andForeign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah then elaborated on the out-comes of his participation in the 9th session ofthe joint Kuwaiti-Bahraini committee held inKuwait on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti Cabinet voiced vehe-

ment regret at the recent bombing targeting abus that carried evacuees traveling from theSyrian towns of Al-Foua’a and Kefraya to govern-ment-controlled areas. The bus blast left scoresof people dead or wounded. The ministersoffered sincere condolences to the families ofthe victims of this ‘heinous terrorist act,’ andwished the swift recovery of those wounded inthe blast. —KUNA

Cabinet mulls setting up shareholding

company to run Jaber Al-Ahmad Hospital

GORKI: Kuwait is one of 18 countries whose citi-zens can now visit the Russian Far East withoutvisas, the Russian media reported yesterday. “Ihave recently approved the list of countries,whose nationals can take advantage of the pref-erential regime,” Russia’s Prime Minister DmitryMedvedev said yesterday. “Businessmen andtourists will not need to undergo the traditionalprocedure of Russian visas receipt. It will beenough for foreigners to enter their data on aspecial website in the Internet.”

“We are proactively forming the modern infra-structure and creating special regimes in the FarEast; the law on visits to the Vladivostok free portwas approved in March,” Medvedev said.Cancellation of visa procedures for tourists andbusinessmen “will promote growth of investment

and tourist attractiveness of the Far East,” theprime minister said. The region will earn moremoney from tourist traffic growth, he added.

Eighteen countries from various regionsselected by the reciprocity principle were includ-ed into the list, Medvedev said. “This is notbecause these states are situated at a closer orlonger distance - we are appropriately introduc-ing bilateral agreements on visa-free travel forthose ready to use such an approach for us,” headded. According to the official site of theRussian Cabinet, the list of 18 countries compris-es - in addition to Kuwait - Algeria, Bahrain,Brunei, India, Iran, Qatar, China, North Korea,Morocco, Mexico, UAE, Oman, Saudi Arabia,Singapore, Tunisia, Turkey and Japan. — RussianNews Agency

No visa for Kuwaitis to

visit Russian Far East

By A Saleh

KUWAIT: There are attempts to gather MPs who filed twoseparate grilling motions against His Highness the PrimeMinister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah for ameeting to discuss the possibility of merging both motions ina bid to ‘unify efforts’ in that regard. The meeting would bringtogether 26 lawmakers who comprise the opposition in theNational Assembly, according to parliamentary sources.

The lawmakers believe the merging process will be easybecause the grilling motion filed by MPs Mohammad Al-Mutair, Waleed Al-Tabtabaie and Marzouq Al-Khalifaincludes five key factors, while the second one filed by MPsRiyadh Al-Adasani and Shuaib Al-Mowaizri includes onlyone factor concerning the government’s performance,which is similar to the fourth factor in the first motion.“Therefore, the second motion can be included as part ofthe first,” the sources stressed.

The meeting would also discuss determining whichthree of the five MPs will discuss those factors during thedebate, the sources said, pointing out that those who calledfor the meeting believe that Mutair and Mowaizri will likelywithdraw while Marzouq Al-Khalifa insists on filing thegrilling motion. The reason for that is because Khalifa feelshe needs to make a ‘strong showing’ that helps him inupcoming elections in anticipation of a ConstitutionalCourt ruling on May 3 that could result in a parliament dis-solution, the sources speculated. MPs who filed the inter-pellations reportedly seek to file a no-cooperation motionagainst the premier, and there is growing doubts within the26 opposition lawmakers regarding whether they couldsecure ten signatures necessary to file said motion after thegrilling’s debate. “They believe therefore that merging thetwo motions will ensure having at least ten MPs sign theno-cooperation motion, thus achieving more political suc-cess for those who filed the grilling,” the sources added.

Off courseThe National Democratic Alliance (NDA) believes that

a parliamentary committee investigating citizenship for-geries would not come up with any results because pre-vious experiences proved that most committees hadusually ‘deviated off course.’

In a statement released to the press yesterday, NDAalso urged anybody had solid documented proof andevidence of any forgery cases to report to the publicprosecution so that those involved could be held legallyaccountable by court, be them senior officials or benefi-ciaries themselves.

Road projectsThe Ministry of Public Works’ (MPW) planning commit-

tee discussed the methodology to be used in qualifyingcompanies for new tenders yet to be offered for bidding,said informed sources.

The sources also expected MPW to withdraw two roadprojects from a company because it failed to executeaccording to schedule. “The company is trying hard toavoid the withdrawal by accelerating its work pace,”stressed the sources, noting that a special committee willbe formed, in case of withdrawal, to run an inventory ofthe completed work so far and offer new tendersthrough the Central Tenders Committee (CTC) to com-plete the remaining works.

Meeting to discuss possibility to

merge Premier’s grilling motions

By Faten Omar

KUWAIT: Kuwait’s Public Anti-CorruptionAuthority organized a seminar at its head-quarters in Shamiya Sunday evening to dis-cuss Kuwait’s position in the internationalscene and the application of anti-corrup-tion legislations.

“Despite the difficulties faced by theauthority and the difficulties encounteredin the reconstruction and the developmentof the new law, we have undertaken to car-ry out its technical duties related to receiv-ing and processing financial disclosure dataand receiving reports and complaints relat-

ing to corruption,” explained AbdulrahmanAl-Namash, head of the authority.

The anti-corruption body is tasked withinvestigating incidents of corruption, wast-ing of public funds and other forms of fiscalmalfeasance in the public sector. Theauthority, created by Law No. 2/2016 isauthorized to investigate financial andasset disclosures and help improve trans-parency in Kuwait’s economy.

The authority has already referred sever-al government officials to the public prose-cution for a variety of alleged offensesincluding failure to disclose income andassets as well and questions over contractsand tenders. Acting Secretary General DrMohammed Abdul Rahman Bouzaber saidthat the authority will adopt the recom-mendations of the symposium and itssponsorship, pointing out that it does notface any obstacles at the technical level atthe present time.

Bouzaber added that the authorityreceived 4,081 financial approvals so far, forabout 50 percent of the total number ofsubjects under the authority of about8,000. He pointed out that the authorityreceived 36 corruption reports to be con-sidered. He added that whistle blowersproviding real evidence and documentswould be taken seriously and the informa-tion kept confidential.

The seminar was held under the patron-age of Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Minister of the Amiri Diwan, whoalso attended the seminar along with sev-eral lawmakers, members of the KuwaitTransparency Society and the Society forthe Protection of Public Money.

Anti-corruption

authority holds seminar

Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Minister of the Amiri Diwan (left) attendsthe seminar.

KUWAIT: Abdulrahman Al-Namash, headof the Public Anti-Corruption Authorityspeaks during the seminar. — Photos byYasser Al-Zayyat

Trio arrested for

trading in banned

sexual enhancers

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

KUWAIT: Residency detectives managed to arrest a gangincluding three expats for trading with banned sexualenhancers. Case papers indicate that detectives were tippedoff about an Arab man selling the enhancers in Sabah Al-Salem. He was later on arrested with possession of some ofthe merchandise he sold, the Interior Ministry’s relations andsecurity media department said in a statement. The suspectled detectives to his source; another expat, who was arrestedin Farwaniya with possession of another quantity. The secondsuspect also led detectives to his supplier; a third expat livingin Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh who was also arrested with possessionof a large quantity and admitted of distributing the merchan-dise through various distributors in several areas. A case wasfiled and further investigations are in progress.

SorceryAn Asian man was arrested for sorcery, said security

sources, noting that several reports were made about the sus-pect’s activities. Some of the complainants told police thattheir maids were seeking the suspect’s help to ‘bewitch’ theirsponsors and have them increase their salaries, stop punish-ing them for mistakes and make them loved by all familymembers. The source added that the suspect’s house wasplaced under close surveillance before it was raided, and hewas arrested red-handed while serving an undercover agent.

CrackdownMubarakiya and the Seafront food control inspectors car-

ried out several inspection campaigns on restaurants andstores in Qibla, Mubarakiya, Sharq and Benaid Al-Gar. Thecrackdowns resulted in confiscating and destroying 283 kilo-grams of fish and filing 14 citations.

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