over the past 60 years, i have traveled hundreds of thousands of kilometers on the roads of kuwait, and this makes me eligible to write about the experiences and the sufferings which have increased gradually over the years because of thefts committed by people who have no conscience. unfortunately, this phenomenon has increased manifold over the past ten years.
i can testify and say with a clear c o n s c i e n c e that the roads of kuwait are now in safe hands of mrs jenan boushehri who took charge of the ministry of public works almost ten months ago, and accepted a challenge which all her predecessors over the past 30 years had refused when the situation became worse during last year’s rains that shamefully exposed the situation and showed the extent of rampant corruption.
only minister jenan boushehri decided to fight the corrupt companies and fix a ‘dormant’ situation. i repeat umpteenth times to those who are skeptical that i have nothing to do with the minister, in any kind. the minister and i met only once by chance and none of us offered any kind of service to each other nor did we request any kind of favors.
she did pave a meter or fill a hole in front of my house or around my office and i obtained the following information not from her but from my sources and newspapers.
after the minister took over the ministry of public works less than a year ago, in the midst of the abyss that she was in, her instructions were to stop the road asphalt work or make any repairs. this was followed by stopping work at all plants and suspension of all new road contracts until the entire scenario was reviewed in order to establish new and lasting quality controls that can be implemented now and in the future.
first, the minister used qatar as an example, which has preceded all countries of the region in its expertise and the strict rules of building roads. a technical delegation from qatar was invited to kuwait. the delegation studied the situation and made recommendations according to which the ministry worked and after that its officials started meeting with the federation of road contractors and the federation of pebbles producers, coordinated with them to determine the quality of the pebbles, qualifying the local asphalt plants that are good and shutting down other plants which were deemed hopeless.
the minister also began the qualification of good factories and their staff in conjunction with the qualification of the technical staff and supervision teams in the ministry. the weight components of each material used in the asphalt were also fully reviewed and all this took a few months and tremendous efforts of all ministry workers who put faith in their work.
the plan also included raising the efficiency of contracting companies that were not subject to suspension, and the suspension of a large number of them. the suspension also reached two consulting offices in the housing side, and all of this opened the doors of hell on the minister, but she resisted and was able to prove that she was all the time right, and we recently began to see the result of the patience of the faithful, where initial new good roads began to emerge, roads we have not seen for many decades.
we hope that minister jenan boushehri will remain in any upcoming cabinet reshuffle if it happens soon. even if the change takes place by moving to another ministry or leaving the ministry, she is confident, i believe, and according to my sources, that she has laid the foundations of road construction and specifications so that it is very difficult not to comply with them in future.
the undersecretary, ismail alfailakawi, will be keen to adhere to these precise specifications, which cost the public money a lot, the guardian of the future to prevent the ‘naked bellied tomb bats’ infiltrating the road construction sector.
i salute this woman’s courage, her sincerity and her wonderful ability to resist all pressures she has been subjected to by some members of the national assembly and the ministers in addition to the social media ‘flies’.
the minister deserves a medal for her efforts, for fighting corruption and the corrupt and does not deserve improvised interrogation. therefore, we have the right to doubt that some of those affected by her decisions are behind the questioning request. thank you.