acontroversy is brewing concerning the expenses paid by the state during the 38th gulf summit. the media has vastly criticized those concerned with the expenditure because of the money spent on the occasion. here i would want to stress on two points: fi rst through this article i am not defending anyone but is just my point of view and two, if the summit had succeeded the way we wanted it to, no one would have discussed what was spent. it is clear the summit was held at a short notice given the urgency of the situation and preparations had to be made at a short notice and money had to be spent more than what normally could be assumed. for example the fi ve-star hotel which was booked for the guests to the summit did not know until the last moment that preparations are being made for the summit to be held in kuwait. as a result, the hotel had made reservations for its guests as usual and when asked all of a sudden to vacate the hotel and make way for the guests, all parties were immediately cancelled including weddings receptions, room and restaurant reservations and the organizer of the summit had to compensate for the loss suffered by the hotel. here, we realize that there have been no exaggerations, except for a few of issues, but the compelling circumstances required double payments to obtain the required service. the problem is not in the expenses of the summit which happens every six or eight years, but the waste lies elsewhere, such as salaries and subsidies in the state budget. although our income from oil is halved, the state pays about $40 billion annually in the form of salaries to more than 370,000 employees, at least 70 percent of whom are just warming their seats. there are also huge disparities in salaries from one ministry to another; the salaries of 20,000 employees in the oil sector are equivalent to 117,000 employees in the ministry of education and the gap continues. the former minister of oil mohammad al-basiri, representative of the muslim brotherhood at the ministry is responsible for this gap. the government also pays more than $15 billion as subsidy for electricity and water, bread and other commodities and services. there is also a problem with the duplication of many government institutions. does the state really need the supreme council for traffi c? the government is also required to merge the martyrs’ of- fi ce with the national committee for the missing and pows affairs. i do not know why the central information system is not merged with the secretariat-general of the supreme planning council and the central administration of statistics and the ministry of planning? what about the project of merging the government manpower and restructuring program with the public authority for manpower? why not abolish the public authority for the printing of the quran, which is similar in status to the committee for islamization of laws, which is cancelled with no regret? why do we have an on-the-job training center, a national center for education development and a third center for accreditation of professional skill levels? these are the things that the media activists should pay attention to, rather than paying attention to car rentals and expenses of guests who came for the summit. e-mail: