“when the number of visitors increases at the door of an official, know that his administration is corrupt!”
i n the heydays of socialism of the former egyptian president jamal abdul nasser in egypt, there was only two five-star hotels, the sheraton and the hilton, and they were located on the nile and equally enjoyed all the facilities, human resources, and logistics and food resources.
the system was one and the owner was one. like all “socialist” projects, the two hotels suffered losses!
the sheraton administration received a new general manager (sami al-zoghbi), who turned the losses into profits, while the hilton, which the former army officer continued to manage, continued to suffer losses.
in a visual presentation which the kuwait municipality invited us to last thursday, a friend surprised me with something what looked like a smooth blame, that i ‘continuously’ write about khaled al-roudhan’s accomplishments at the ministry of commerce and i told him that, it is what i feel through my constant contact with the ministry, and that i write from my experiences and not from my imagination.
our conversation stopped with the start of the kuwait municipality presentation, and the announcement by its directorgeneral eng ahmad al-manfouhi who spoke about the launch of 3 new electronic services, as of march 1, the first linking the municipality with the public authority for industry, to facilitate the issuance of licenses pertaining to industrial areas directly.
he also announced the link with the ministry of electricity, to facilitate the approval by the municipality, and also announced coordination with the ministry of public works regarding licensing the sanitary (drainage) outlet. he said, once all these extremely important issues have been implemented it will greatly help do away with fatigue, suffering, and waste of time that those visiting these institutions suffer from.
during the presentation, eng al-manfouhi talked about “improving kuwait’s image on the building permits index”. he said the municipality works in cooperation with some ministries to add new services such as the issuance of a building permit within two days, and to make it possible for the public authority for industry to issue licenses for industrial plots and there has also been cooperation with the ministry of electricity to obtain the necessary licenses without referring to 16 departments as was the case earlier.
as for receiving the borders of the area where the building is to be constructed, this is done now within a day or two and is the fastest service in the middle east, all of which has raised the level of kuwait in the world bank index to attract foreign investors. this “administrative and technical revolution” may not mean much to the majority of citizens, but it will inevitably affect them in the future.
this revolution takes place in a government agency that was the most corrupt, and it became, within a relatively short period of time, and through the efforts of one man, one of the most sophisticated and fastest parts of the state in catching up with the precious opportunities we missed due to corruption, waste, and neglect.
we return to what our friend said about the topic of my writing on the achievements of the minister of commerce and industry and one feather in the hat of the kuwait municipality because it deserves praise no less than the ministry of commerce and industry, especially after eng waleed al-jassem took the municipality portfolio, municipality’s son for more than thirty years, who has not hesitated to support the efforts of the eng manfouhi in his relentless pursuit to modernize the system and make the departments in municipality more sophisticated and less corrupt.
however, i must not forget to pay tribute to the efforts exerted by the public authority for industry and the rapid and tangible development that is taking place.
since i will be soon embarking on a “construction project”, i will inevitably pass through all the stages that eng manfouhi has talked about, and i will write soon about my experience in this fi eld.