‘Minister can do it’ Control State money
seven years ago, a financial disaster had occurred and we are still witnessing its dangerous consequences.
very few took notice of that catastrophe when former minister of oil and former mp mohammad albusairi, who belongs to the muslim brotherhood group, granted employees working in oil fields a sudden huge increase in their salaries, reaching an average of kd 9,000. the maximum salary was kd 12,000 and the minimum was kd 5,500.
the cabinet had approved this, and the then prime minister had ordered for the allocation of kd 20 million of the public funds for that purpose.
all unions and labor associations maintained silence concerning this unjustified and illogical increase in salaries that resulted from threats of strikes. employees of the other government institutions and their representatives in the labor associations thought their turn for increases in their salaries will come eventually.
shortly after, the voices of protest calling for equality became louder. al-busairi then said the increase in the salaries of the oil sector employees did not cost the state anything because they are financed by oil revenues?!
no member in the government dared to express objection to that statement of al-busairi, perhaps fearing the tough tongue of the followers of muslim brotherhood group.
parliamentary discussions concerning the budgets of ministries and state bodies held shortly before the end of the last parliamentary session revealed that kuwait petroleum corporation (kpc) owns kd 17 billion. kpc invests that money the way it likes and it finances the salary increments from the profits of its investments.
among the various scandals that kuwait port authority is involved in, the latter invested a large sum of its money in a speculation fund run by a loading and offloading company that has nothing to do with investment. perhaps the entire money has been wasted at present.
the abovementioned two examples, as well as many others, reveal the miserable governmental conditions that allow many state bodies to not only possess such huge sums of money but also to invest and spend them the way they like, neglecting the fact that there is a specific specialized and experienced state body assigned to invest the surpluses of the state revenues. it is the public authority for investment.
therefore, we ask minister of finance to prevent those organizations from dealing with their money the way they like. this case brought about a state of disturbance and overlapping. for example, a state body like kpc sells shares belonging to a european company when it realizes keeping those shares is useless. on the other hand, an organization like public authority for investment buys the same shares, believing it is a profitable investment. the paradox in this situation is that the broker is the same for both the buyer and the seller of the shares.
we are aware of the pressures and limits imposed upon a minister of finance. nevertheless, when the issue is concerning the interest of the countries, minister of finance has to stand firm and take relevant actions to prevent those errors so that the door of investment is not left open for everybody including those who are not specialized in investing. relevant actions must be taken to prevent another “busairi” from repeating the same mistake.
