(Source: Kuwait Times)
By A. Saleh, Kuwait Times
May 5--KUWAIT -- The parliamentary financial affairs committee is to discuss the privatization of state airline KAC and the establishment of health insurance firms to fund healthcare in Kuwait during a special session next week. Committee rapporteur MP Abdulrahman Al-Anjari revealed yesterday that some MPs are jointly putting forward proposed amendments to the KAC privatization legislation which they believe would preserve the state's rights in relation to the national airline, as well as protecting its integrity
until all the outstanding issues surrounding privatization are resolved.
On the proposed establishment of health insurance firms, Al-Anjari said that the feasibility studies conducted into the issue to date had been inadequate, lacking a great deal of necessary information. The committee was also critical of procedures put in place by the health ministry to provide a database of information on expatriates eligible for treatment under the health insurance system before inviting bids from firms to provide insurance coverage, Al-Anjari added.
On a separate issue, the chairman of the parliamentary committee on budges and account closures, MP Adnan Al-Abdulsamad, protested against the lack of financial supervision over the budget allocated to the Public Authority for the Assessment of Compensation for Damages Resulting from Iraqi Aggression (PAAC). Despite the fact that the UN had already approved payment of almost $3 billion to the PAAC, with $2.2 billion already paid and $700,000,000 outstanding, there is still no financial supervision over ho
w this money is spent from either the Ministry of Finance or the National Assembly (Parliament), said Abdulsamad.
The MP urged the government to establish an official mechanism to oversee payments and spending since the finance ministry faces a legal obstacle in monitoring the funds since the PAAC is not a government body, so is therefore not under the ministry's aegis. Meanwhile, a lawmaker has demanded intense penalties, including jail-term against traders who deal with spoiled food items apart from canceling their license permanently.
The current penalties are not deterrent enough to stop (traders) from dealing with bad food at the expense of the lives of innocent civilians", MP Askar Al-Enizy said in a recent statement, in which he announced plans to present a draft law which would classify violations as felony punishable by jail or high fines. "The current regulation contains a maximum KD1,000 fine against a violator; which is too less compared to the seriousness of the case".
Moreover, Al-Enizy indicated that he supports the draft law made by fellow lawmakers to establish a public authority for food monitoring and requested this to be treated as top priority by the Cabinet and the parliament. The MP also blamed the state departments, namely the Kuwait Municipality, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, and Ministry of Health for "failing to curb the spread of spoiled food items in local markets".
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