27 March 2017
Warning on tenders

By Abubakar A. Ibrahim Arab Times Staff

KUWAIT CITY: The Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee of the National Assembly during its meeting Sunday turned down requests by the Public Prosecution to lift the immunity of two MPs Jama’an Al-Harbash and Naif Al-Mirdas and approved an amendment to the Pre- Detention Law. The amendment to the law reduces the number of days a person can be detained to 10 days instead of 21. Committee Chairman Mohammed Al-Dalal said the following amendments restore the legality of the law to its 2012 era.

Period in police custody: Article 60, Paragraph Two (after amendment to Law No. 3/2012) states the period of detention of a suspect in police custody after his arrest is not more than forty-eight hours (instead of four days, which was stipulated earlier). Pre-Trial detention period: Article 69, Paragraph One, after the amendment reads, a suspect can be detained pending investigation for not more than 10 days from the date of arrest instead of three weeks, which was stipulated earlier.

In the meantime, Al-Dallal added that, in the presence of representatives of the Department of State Property, the committee discussed a letter from the Parliament to examine the constitutionality of the request submitted by the Chairman of the Budgets and Final Accounts Committee to mandate the Minister of Finance to provide the committee with the information it has requested. He pointed out that the request is concerning the application of the Law No. 50/1994 on the use of plots and houses allocated for private housing purposes.

He said the committee decided to invite the Budget and Final Accounts Committee Chairman, MP Adnan Abdul- Samad during its next meeting to listen to his argument on the constitutional and legal aspect of this issue. Meanwhile, MP Rakan Al-Nisf has called on the State Minister for Cabinet Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Al-Abdullah Al-Sabah to stop what he called ‘large scale malpractices’ in the Central Tenders Committee (CTC) and waste of public funds. He noted companies have been qualified in violation of the Tenders Law which is unacceptable. He added the minister is politically responsible to stop the manipulations during public bidding. He added, public funds are used through the CTC “and the committee must fall in line with the rules and regulations because what we see now is disrespect for that law.” He added, “We don’t accuse the CTC of corruption because there are honest people also and if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t have known the violations in the committee.”

He stressed the need for the minister to take legal action to protect the reputation of the CTC and the honor of its employees.

He added, “If the projects worth KD 3 billion are awarded through the CTC annually amid manipulations and violations, things cannot move in the right manner.” Al-Nisf said the minister is aware of the irregularities that happened while the agricultural projects were awarded by the Amiri Diwan to an unqualified company in violation of the law.

On another issue, Al-Nisf said the decision taken by Minister of Health is somewhat satisfactory “but the problem is that the senior officials in the ministry who are known to be corrupt are still holding on to their posts and this is one of the key points of the interpellation.

He asserted the corruption in the Ministry of Health is systematic and it is the duty of the minister to get rid of corrupt officials.

© Arab Times 2017