A senior government minister has pledged to immediately start replacing hundreds of expatriate employees with locals, as part of a nationwide Bahrainisation drive.
Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Minister Essam Khalaf made the commitment yesterday during a meeting with members of Parliament’s Bahrainisation Probe Committee.
He told MPs that as soon as suitable replacements are found he will ensure that the 537 foreign employees at his ministry are replaced by competent Bahrainis.
The committee was formed in March to investigate hiring practises in the public and private sectors in order to replace 7,582 expatriates working in government jobs and to increase the Bahrainisation quota in private firms.
It will submit a report on its findings and recommendations by October when the National Assembly reconvenes following summer recess.
Committee head MP Ebrahim Al Nefaei said this was among the highest number of expatriates working in a government body, with many of them taking up office roles such as secretaries.
“When we confronted Mr Khalaf about the huge number of expatriates (537) in his ministry, we were informed that they were occupying jobs that Bahrainis don’t want,” he told the GDN.
“After careful review of the ministry’s employment charts we found that several were secretaries receiving BD700 - how are these jobs Bahrainis don’t want?
“We acknowledge the hard work done by the minister and the ministry’s outstanding performance in completing infrastructure and municipal projects, schemes and services, but that doesn’t mean we can turn a blind eye to the fact that Bahrainis are not being employed.”
He said the committee was pushing forward an article in the 2010 Civil Service Law that states jobs in the government sector have to be 100pc for Bahraini nationals, except in rare cases.
He acknowledged, however, that plans by MPs to remove all expats from the government sector by 2022 would face difficulties - adding that the committee understood 100pc Bahrainisation was impossible.
“Mr Khalaf had valid examples of niche specialisations that are not even offered by the Education Ministry for scholarships,” he said.
“This includes cost engineering, quantity surveying and water resources engineering, besides the unavailability of specialists in every animal and agriculture production job and veterinary services.
“However, the minister did agree to have all employees replaced starting from today whenever a qualified Bahraini comes to his ministry’s gates - a commitment no one else has given us.
Blame
“Also, in a previous meeting with Education Minister Dr Majid Al Nuaimi he stressed that scholarships were offered in co-ordination with other ministers, so if no Bahrainis are available in niche fields then the concerned ministries didn’t list them and he can’t take the blame.”
MPs are also seeking feedback from the Civil Service Bureau on its timeline to increase Bahrainisation quotas in the public sector, however, its president Ahmed Al Zayed has sent the committee three written apologies postponing three meetings.
Committee members are now set to meet with Labour and Social Development Minister Jameel Humaidan in the coming weeks to get an exact number of expatriate workers in the private sector.
There are 5,028 Bahrainis with university degrees listed as job seekers under the Labour and Social Development Ministry database.
The committee has conducted a number of meetings with government officials since March in which it learned that Bahrain University has 339 expats while the Electricity and Water Affairs Ministry hires 490 foreign workers.
Bahrainisation in the Education Ministry is at 83.90pc in teaching jobs and 98.9pc in administrative and technical jobs, while the rate is at 79pc in the Health Ministry, 83pc in Alba and only 25.8pc in Asry.
Committee members were also told that Bahrain Airport Company is set to reach 90pc Bahrainisation by 2022.
mohammed@gdn.com.bh
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