'Boost transparency'

KUWAIT CITY, Dec 10: Several civic bodies and activists called on the government to abide by the United Nations (UN) treaty for fighting and preventing corruption at a seminar organized by the Kuwait Transparency Society (KTS) on the occasion of International Day for Prevention of Corruption recently, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.

The participants urged the government and parliament to make the draft laws on corruption prevention and boosting of transparency their priority in the current parliamentary term.

Board Chairman of KTS Salah Al-Ghazali requested the government to prepare the draft bills about corruption prevention and boosting transparency so that they can be referred to the National Assembly long before the session of March 8th. He also called on the Legislative and Legal Affairs Committee in the National Assembly to complete its report on those bills, so they can be listed on the agenda of the same session.

Moreover, former lawmaker Saleh Al-Fadhala asserted that corruption is a global phenomenon that has spread in different countries in the world and lauded KTS and 'Parliaments against Corruption' for fighting against corruption. He said the organization gathered a group of personalities to prepare a unified strategy against corruption and referred to the correspondences of the organization with the Prime Minister and the Speaker of the National Assembly to hasten the ratification of law for corruption prevention.

Speaking on the occasion, representative of the Public Prosecution Bader Al-Mesad asserted that Kuwait is not the only country that has so far not issued laws against corruption. He added there are many European and Arab countries where such laws are still under discussion. "We have very good laws and legislation; therefore, our problem is not due to absence of laws. There might be a problem with morals," he added.

Former lawmaker Ahmad Al-Mulaifi criticized the current way of dealing with different issues and said we need to create a culture of positive opposition.

© Arab Times 2010